Don't Stop Me Now
by DanDanger1
Summary: What happens when 15 year old Sugar Pierce-Lopez, from the year 2033, accidentally gets transported to Lima, Ohio, 2012, in Mommy Brittany's time machine?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: 1. Obviously, I don't own glee or any of its characters, any of the songs that may or may not be referenced/used in this work, etc etc. 2. This story is related to the Future!Sugar internet head-canon that Sugar is a Brittana baby, which I also do not own, though I hope my take on it is unique enough to be interesting. 3. I had originally posted this story earlier, but it had a much darker intro chapter that I realised would have forced this story in a direction I really didn't want it to go, so here is the new version. I may re-post the original chapter in an edited form as a one shot at some point, but I'm not sure. 4. I am following basically my own canon which is a mix of the proper show canon and my own head-canon as I deem fit/necessary for the story, so please don't point out flaws with the way it happened in the show, etc. 5. I am from Israel, and English is not my native language. We speak Hebrew and Spanish at home, and I learned Queen's (British) English at school, and whilst I've tried to keep dialogue and such in character for Americans, I'm not sure if I've been successful, but I'm trying. Also, I've never been to New York, so all the descriptions, etc are all based on television, movies, etc. Please, if anyone from here is actually from NYC don't get offended. Enjoy and happy reading. **

The Future: 23 August, 2033

'Happy birthday, dear Sugar...happy birthday to you!' Her moms and both sets and grandparents, less one grandfather, sang to Sugar over the videochat client. It was her fifteenth birthday, and of all the birthdays she had ever had, this one was distinctly the least happy one she could remember having. It wasn't for what one might consider 'normal' teen-aged girl reasons, such as material things like not getting the gifts she wanted; her mothers had raised her right and taught her to believe that there were more important things in life than possessions. Of course, being a recently-minted-15-year-old, she did of course like having gifts and such as well, and her mothers and friends and extended family always seemed to deliver perfectly in this area, and this year was no exception to that. No, the reason for her sadness as well as for the absence of her Grandpa David – David Pierce, her Mommy's dad – were both one and the same. He had passed away a little over a week ago, and her Mommy had gone back to her childhood home in Ohio to comfort her mother and her little sister – Sugar's Auntie Liz – and to take care of funeral arrangements. A few days later, after making a few arrangements from their home in New York, Sugar's Mami, Santana had gone to Ohio as well, to join her wife. Normally, they would have brought Sugar with them, but the fact that Sugar had a major exam in a week, and could not afford to be taken out of school, or removed from her normal routine in order to spend time in Lima, Ohio with her granny Pierce and her Abuelo y Abuela was not something that any of them thought was the best use of their time and resources. It was especially hard, considering it was Sugar's idea that she stay home and use the time to continue to study for her exam so that she could get into the best university possible when the time came and really make her moms proud of her. Her mothers initially put up a fight, saying she was too young to stay home by herself, and that she should come be with family, especially because her birthday was, at that point, a little over a week away. However, she had insisted to her mothers that she would be fine, and she was going to be fifteen years old, after all, and that they could videochat every day so she could still see and talk to them all, and they would all be fine. Eventually, they had agreed, but only on the condition of – and after making the required arrangements – that she would have at least some modicum of adult supervision at least once a day, which they arranged to be taken care of in alternating shifts, by Sugar's 'Aunts' and 'Uncles', none of whom were actually related to her by blood but had been friends of her parents for almost twenty years and had known and helped raise her since the day she was born, and thus were as much family as those who were related to her by blood.

And so, she sat in front of her computer on the day of her fifteenth birthday, 'blowing out the candles' on her cake via webcam, rather than sitting in the same room with her parents and grandparents, getting smothered by hugs and kisses – which she pretended to hate, because she was a teenager, after all, but secretly loved – rather than being woken up this morning with a special birthday breakfast in bed which her mommies had made together, with smiley-face eggs and blueberry pancakes and all her favourites which she would eat in the freshly-made-for-the-occasion silly hat, which her Mommy made her every year, each one slightly different than the last, but usually heavily featuring her favourite colours and usually either bunny ears or reindeer antlers leftover from the past Easter or Christmas respectively, which she also always loved – they were so thoughtful and unique and quirky and they showed just how much her parents cared about and loved her, and just as importantly it was a birthday tradition, which she loved – instead, she ate a breakfast of regular Lucky Charms cereal wearing her birthday hat from last year, and now she was having her cake and candles via videochat whilst she waited for her Uncle Noah to pick her up and take her out on a special 'Niece-and-Uncle birthday dinner'. Which, whilst she knew it would be nice, and she loved her Uncle Noah – or as he preferred to be called when out of earshot of his girlfriend or her moms, Uncle Puck – it wasn't the same as being with her moms. And it contributed to her melancholy mood. She knew that she only had herself to blame, of course, for suggesting she stay home and remain in school and study for her exam, and on insisting that she would be fine, because after all, she was fifteen and didn't need her mommies all the time, and that her parents should go back to Ohio without her and that she would be fine in the apartment in New York. Of course she said those things. She was trying to be grown up and mature and helpful. Shouldn't her moms have realised that and told her no? Shouldn't her moms have put their metaphorical foot down and told her that in times like these, her place was with her family, and that was that? The fact of the matter was, that Sugar was, despite the fact that she pretended otherwise, a huge Momma's Girl, for both of her mothers. She was very close to both of them, and loved them both deeply. She still called her Latina mother, Santana, the one who carried her and birthed her Mami, and there was of course an extremely close bond between the two, despite the fact that of her two mothers, she fought with her the most, though that probably has something to do with how similar their personalities were, at least when it came to stubbornness and arguing. Her other mother, too, she still called Mommy, even though most other girls her age had long since started calling their parents 'Mom' or something similar. She was still extremely close to both her mothers, despite the fact that she was now a teen and they fought and argued a bit more than they had when she was younger, and she still craved physical affection from her mothers in the form of kisses and hugs, amongst other things – except of course, in front of her friends or at school – which her parents were more than willing to provide for her. And the fact that today, on her birthday, she was not able to have those things she craved, even if it was her own fault, made her rather sad.

'Happy birthday, my beautiful little Sugar Lump,' her Mommy was saying through the computer screen. Despite her being sad and missing her moms, Sugar still smiled at the familiar pet name.

'Make sure you make a wish, mi princesa, and blow out the candles,' her Mami said, smiling at her daughter's smile.

'How can I blow out the candles if you're in Ohio and I'm in New York, Mami?' she asked, giggling

'Oh, its simple, Mija,' she replied. 'We'll see you blowing and then we'll blow them out for you at this end here,' her Mami said simply as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

'I don't think it works that way, Mami,' Sugar said plainly.

'What? Of course it does. Everyone knows that wishes transfer to the mommies to blow out the candles in just these sorts of situations,' Santana said. 'Its in the manual.'

'There is no manual, Mami,' Sugar sighed, happily forgetting if only for a moment that her family was so very far away.

'And how would you know? You don't get to see or read the manual until you're a Mami,' Santana countered. Her other mom, Brittany, nodded her head in agreement, smiling indulgently at her daughter, before adding,

'Its true,' she said to her daughter. 'Plus, I can also verify it with science'

Sugar just raised her eyebrow, chuckling. She knew her Mommy was some big shot scientist, and if the newspapers and magazine articles she had read were any indication, she was actually a proper scientific genius, and one of the best scientific minds of her generation. Which apparently nobody recognised, knew, or understood until her senior year of high school because everyone but her Mami thought she was, at best, a ditz with her head in the clouds, and at worst, stupid. Of course, her Mami had always known she was a genius, but that was to be expected. So she often took whatever her mother said about science seriously on face value of her authority alone; but she also knew her mother had a sense of humour a mile wide, and sometimes she was burned in the past by believing things to be true that her mother told her, when she was was, in fact, joking.

'Its true, Sweetheart. Its called the Law of Conservation of Wishes,' her Mommy said, eyes sparkling.

'Mommy...'

'Just make a wish, Sweetheart,' she said, laughing.

Sugar nodded and did as she was told. She wished that all her family would be together again and they could celebrate her birthday together, happily, after which she nodded to her parents indicating that she had, indeed, thought of a wish.

'Ok, ready, Mija? One, two...three!' her Mami said, indicating that Sugar should "blow out the candles", which she did, at which point, her Abuelo Carlos blew all the candles out in one go, winking at her.

'Feliz cumpleaños, mi querida nieta,' he said to the camera, smiling broadly and adoringly at the teenager that looked back at him, almost bursting into tears when he remembered the tiny wee thing she was fifteen years ago today, when his daughter first introduced him to his grand-daughter. 'Remember that today is your day. Have some fun and relax, don't study too hard today. Remember we all love you so much and miss you and wish you were here with us for your special day. We're so proud of how smart you are and how grown up you are about your studies and I am positive you'll get the best mark in your entire class on your exam, because you are super-smart, just like both your Mamis – you inherited that from me, you know –,' he was cut off by a snort from his wife, Sugar's Abuela, who tried to hold back the laughter, 'and we love you and miss you lots, and are super proud of you, even your Papito David I'm sure is looking down on you from heaven now, smiling because his grand-daughter is surely the smartest, best, most beautiful fifteen year old in all of New York City,' she said smiling, as her Mommy's and Granny Pierce's eyes teared up and smiled bittersweetly at the mention of David, who had only been buried the day before.

'Aww, Abuelo, you're going to make me blush,' Sugar said, her face bright red, and desperately trying to look anywhere but the camera.

'Good,' he said simply. 'That is my god-given right as a grandparent. Its in the bible, or something,' he said, as his wife, Rosa – Sugar's Abuela – slapped him playfully on the arm and playfully scolded him for embarassing their grand-daughter in Spanish.

'Well, we'll let you go, baby girl,' Brittany said to her daughter. 'I'm sure your Uncle Noah will be there soon, assuming he was able to leave work on time and traffic wasn't too bad...'

'Why wouldn't he take the train...?' Sugar asked, confused. Noah Puckerman almost always took the train, despite being an amazing driver. He only took the car out on rare occasions, so him driving was odd to Sugar. Luckily, the meaningful look her Mami gave her Mommy was lost on Sugar, as her mother continued,

'Well, yeah, that's what I mean...as long as there's no traffic stuck on the tracks again, delaying the trains,' she said, doing the best she could to cover her slip-up.

'Anyway, Mija,' her Mami cut in. 'We'll let you go so you can be ready when your Uncle Noah gets there. Remember, your Aunts and Uncles are coming over with a cake from Cakes Annonymous,' – her and her moms' favourite bakery in New York – 'tomorrow evening. And then we'll be home the day after that, and we'll go out to a special belated birthday dinner anywhere you want after that. We love you, Princesa. Happy birthday!' she said, as Granny Pierce also echoes the sentiments and her Abuelo y Abuela called out 'Feliz cumpleaños!' before they all said their goodbyes and closed the videochat.

Her Uncle Noah was late. By her reckoning, at least 45 minutes late, which would mean he was probably driving, for some reason, and stuck in traffic, not stuck in a delay on the subway. She had been ready – and excited to see her Uncle whom she hadn't seen in ages – for nearly 20 minutes and now she was just waiting. Bored. She tried watching tv, but nothing was on. She listened to music for a few minutes but she was so anxious that she couldn't decide on one single song and kept switching tracks halfway through each song, and eventually she gave it up as a bad job and turned off the music player. Eventually, she found herself idly walking through the house, looking at things but not seeing things, engrossed deep in thought, switching between her family whom she missed but was also excited to see, and her studies for her upcoming exam.

She was so lost in thought, in fact, that when she finally became more aware of where she was again, she couldn't remember how she had gotten to the garage. Yet, all the same, she found herself in the garage, staring at a car. It wasn't their family car that was a sleek, modern, sporty-but-sensible family vehicle – at least, that's what her Mami told her Mommy when they decided to buy it – and since they only had one car because they lived in New York City and rarely needed a car to begin with and more than one was overkill, it took her a few moments to realise whose car it was. Then, slowly, it came to her. It was old, but well-cared for, built in a boxy design typical of the 1980s, sat low to the ground, and was painted in a dull, matte-silver paint. Further, the door hinges were on the roof, suggesting that the doors opened up like wings, rather than swinging out forward like a normal door. She knew this car after all. This was her Mommy's very first car, which she had helped to restore with her Grandpa David when she, her Mommy, was in high school, before Sugar was even a twinkle in her or her Mami's eye, as her Grandpa David used to say. The car was meticulously cared for – it had to be, as it was older than not only Sugar, but both of her moms as well – evidence of the sentimental value it had for at least one, if not both, of her mothers. It was a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 6-cylinder. Just like the one from Back to the Future. She knew that because when she had first seen the film, when she was about 8 years old and her moms decided she was old enough to start watching 'grown-up' films, one of the first ones they watched together was Back to the Future. And when she had seen the time machine, she had squealed in delight and screamed at her mommies that their car was in the movie. At which point Brittany had explained that it wasn't, in fact, the same car, and had told her all about restoring that car with her dad when she was in high school.

Suddenly, as if she were a woman possessed, she went to the drivers' side door, and lifted the wing-type door to open it. She had all of a sudden experienced a very real desire – no, need – to sit in the car. She had to sit in it, to feel close – closer, anyway – at that moment to her grandfather whom she missed terribly and to whom she wasn't able to say goodbye. Not properly, at any rate. She wasn't going to try to drive it or anything like that – she didn't know how to drive and didn't even have a learners' permit since she just turned fifteen and could barely reach the pedals, not to mention the fact that both of her moms would absolutely kill her – but she was a woman possessed. All she wanted to do was sit there, in the drivers seat on the car, to feel closer to him, one last time. Touch the same parts he had touched, the same parts he may have himself screwed and hammered into place, checking and rechecking they worked properly so that it was safe for her daughter to use and drive as a car. It was such a sweet story, her mothers told her, about the time her Mommy and Grandpa restored this car, and all she wanted to do was to feel close to him one last time.

However, something struck her as very strange about the control panel of the car when she was sat in the drivers seat. There were many more dials and knobs and displays than she thought had any business being there. And whilst she didn't herself know how to drive and knew that that thought was based only on an assumption, she had ridden in the front passenger seat enough times to know that there were far more displays than there should be. She shrugged it off, however, thinking that perhaps this was just how cars were back in the 1980s – just like how as other technologies advanced, such as computers or mobile phones, they would get sleeker and smaller and require less dials and knobs and buttons and such – perhaps the cars she was used to were just so much more advanced than this car from the last century.

She grabbed the steering column slowly, reverently placing both her hands on the steering wheel, breathing in deeply, almost religiously, as if breathing in the scent of the car and touching the steering wheel would somehow enable her to feel the presence of her grandpa one last time. It didn't work that way, she knew, but deep down in the darkest corner of her heart, she hoped that maybe she was wrong. Or that at least, even if it didn't work that way, she could feel like it did and everything would be okay. As she did so, she noticed the glint of the ignition key on the dashboard just above the steering column.

_Well, what's the harm_, she thought to herself. _Its not like I'm going to take it out of the garage. Maybe I could turn it on, just for a minute, and listen to the radio_ she thought as she placed the key in the ignition and turned. The engine hummed and purred quietly with familiar power as she looked for the switch for the radio. _Damn you, you ancient hunk of junk_, she thought, frustrated. _Why do you have to have so many switches? No wonder we cut down the number of displays as the technology improved_, she thought, still searching for the switch, or button, that would do the trick. Eventually, she found what she thought was the radio, which was connected to a metallic switch and a red button that said 'on'.

_Bingo_, she thought, smirking impishly at her small success, as she flipped the switch first and then pressed the button, all the time cursing out the fact that she had to both flip a switch and press a button in order to listen to music. But she didn't hear music. Instead, she heard a series of loud whooshing sounds, saw the outsides of the car briefly glow a faint blueish colour, before feeling like she was being squeezed through a too-small inner tube and everything went black.

Puck arrived at the house a few moments later. He had, indeed, gotten stuck in traffic, and had parked the car on the kerb outside the house – his secret birthday surprise was to give his 'niece' a driving lesson. A few moments after the strange incident's with Brittany's DeLorean, he stood at the front door to the Pierce-Lopez home and rang the doorbell. However, instead of being greeted with the usual sounds of familiar movement inside the house followed by a mad-dash as one or more of the occupants scrambled to get to the door and open it, he was met instead with silence. Long, unbearable, awkward silence that left him stood on the front step awkwardly wondering why the girl he had loved as if they were, in fact, flesh and blood since the day Santana brought her screaming into the world, wasn't answering the door.

He knew that she was a bit depressed and feeling a bit left out, which was why he had gotten permission from her mothers to give her a driving lesson as a special birthday gift, and he was also aware that she was studying very hard for her exams, which sometimes meant she became so absorbed in her own little world that she didn't notice things, but he had assumed she would be excited to spend some time with him for her birthday – being in the Air Force meant that he was often on deployment and couldn't spend as much time with his niece as either of them liked, and he had just finished a deployment cycle and had two whole months at home before he had to report again – and that she would have therefore heard the doorbell ring and let him in by now. Luckily, he had a key to the house, and when he rang the bell a second time and was still met with silence, he pulled the key out of his wallet where he kept it safe, and let himself in the house, the whole time chuckling ruefully at how very much like both her mothers Sugar Pierce-Lopez was.

'Sugar!' he called out to his niece once he had entered the house and closed the door behind him, and was greeted with a similar silence as when he had rang the doorbell. 'Sugar Elizabeth! Sugar, put the books away and come say hello to your favourite uncle!'

He was greeted with more silence. He was starting to worry. Sugar loved him almost as much as she loved her moms, and when he was in town and they were able to spend time together, she never passed it up. Something strange was going on.

'Okay, okay, very funny,' he said, forcing himself to laugh despite himself. 'Sugar Pierce-Lopez you are a master prankster,' he cried out. 'You sure pulled one over on me, now come on out, I've got a birthday surprise for you!' he yelled to the unbeknownst-to-him empty house.

He was again met with silence. Deafening, ice-cold silence.

Like a man possessed, he ran through the house, checking every room thoroughly for Sugar, to no avail. When he could not find her, he once again re-checked every room looking for signs of anything untoward – true, he was in the Air Force and not a detective for the NYPD, but his training and many years of experience has led to giving him at least a rudimentary knowledge of what he was looking for – no there were no signs of struggle or forced entry that he could identify, which did make sense to him, after all. Whilst they all did live in New York City, the Pierce-Lopez family, unlike many of the other former glee kids who chose to remain living in a pseudo-bohemian lifestyle long after they got too old for it to be cool or socially acceptable to do so, living in too-small apartments in Manhattan, the East Village, and certain parts of Brooklyn, had moved into a quiet neighbourhood of one of the outer parts of Queens, itself an Outer Borough, when Sugar was still quite young; the neighbourhood was very safe, and whilst it was still very much urban and part of New York City, had a quasi-suburban feel to it, reflected in the types of residents living there – young families mostly – the character of the neighbourhood, as well as things such as the quality of the public schools and other similar amenities. Which of course meant that it was one of the safer neighbourhoods in New York, and they were all very happy there. Because of this fact, Puck didn't actually expect to see any sort of evidence of anything untoward occurring, but he checked all the same.

The only place in the house remaining that hadn't been checked was the garage. He immediately went to the garage and threw open the door, half expecting Sugar to be there, headphones in her ears and music blasting loudly, practicing some new dance move or something for one school production or the other. What he found when he opened the garage door, however, was something completely different, and completely wiped the smile that had begun to re-form on his lips from his face.

The garage was empty. Sugar was no where to be seen within its walls, and what was worse, the DeLorean was missing. The DeLorean that NEVER left the garage, that Puck had never seen driven since Brittany and Santana had moved into the house in Queens, was also gone. And not gone in a Sugar was being rebellious and took the car for a joyride around the neighbourhood type of gone, but in a the car which Brittany had claimed she had converted and turned into a plutonium-core based time machine was gone, as if it had disappeared into thin air, and the only hint that it had ever been there was the scorch marks the tires had left on the garage floor.

'Fuck,' was all that Puck could muster to express the direness of the situation, knowing that it was, indeed, bad, and that he would have to be the bearer of terrible news and call Santana and Brittany back in Lima and tell them that their daughter and car-which-is-rumoured-to-be-a-time-machine are missing. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,' he muttered to himself, leaving the garage and going back into the house, pulling out his phone and dialing Santana's number.

'Hello?' She asked.

'Hey Lopez'

'What's up, Puck? Is Sugar loving your surprise?' Santana enquired about her daughter. 'Are you in the car now? Let me talk to her – wait, no, don't, I don't want to distract her...'

'Santana,' the use of her full, given name brought Santana back to reality. 'Are you sitting down?'

'Yes, Britt and I just finished my parents putting away the dishes, and we're just about to pop in a movie...' she said.

'So Britt is with you?'

'Yes, of course'

'No, I mean, physically with you right now, not in another room or something'

'Yeah, she's sitting right next to me'

'I have some...news. And I don't know how to tell you...,' Puck said.

'I like to get it done and over with,' she said, not really understanding what he was talking about. She had a hunch, but she really hoped he was not about to tell her what she thought he was.

'She's gone'

'Well, she'll be back soon, she probably just went for a walk. Just sit tight, put on the tv and wait,' Santana said.

'No, I mean, she's _gone_. I don't know where she is, but wherever it is, it looks like she left in a hurry because her books and computer and things are still spread out across her desk and bed. But she's not here. She's not answering her phone. And most importantly,' he said, gulping, terrified of the answer. 'The DeLorean is gone.' Puck waited for the explosion on the other line for which Santana was rightly famous. He waited for what seemed like ages, but it never came. Instead, Santana was just silent. Eventually, after what must have been at least five minutes of shocked silence, she spoke,

'Thank you, Puck. We'll be on the next flight back. Go home and try and get some sleep, there's nothing you can do until we get back anyway, so try to get some sleep. We'll figure the rest out tomorrow,' she said, and before Puck could respond in his confusion, she ended the call.

All the colour had, of course, drained from her face, and that, coupled with the stilted one-sided conversation that Brittany had overheard her wife having led her to look at Santana with confusion and worry written all over her face as soon as Santana had put her phone away.

'Its happened, Britt,' Santana said, breathing deeply to steady her nerves.

'What has?'

'She's gone'

'She's gone?'

'Yes, Brittany. It seems that your daughter has taken your time machine and is now gone'

'Since when is she just _my_ daughter, San?'

'Since she took your stupid time machine and disappeared, Brittany! That's when! I want my baby back but because you left that stupid time machine in the garage she's gone, and...!' She cried, slapping and pounding her fists on her wife's arms in frustration.

'San...San...Santana! Honey, calm down,' Brittany said at great risk. She knew that in normal circumstances telling Santana Pierce-Lopez to 'calm down' in a situation like this, even if it was Brittany, the only person who ever could calm Santana down, telling her to do so, was as near to signing one's own death warrant that one could get. However, she also knew that they had talked about this, at length, multiple times, and that she was just venting her frustrations. After a while, Santana was no longer yelling angrily or slapping or pounding her fists, but was instead crying softly into Brittany's shoulder, as the blonde girl comforted her and rubbed soothing circles along her back and arms. Once she had calmed down, Brittany spoke again, pulling her wife away from her shoulder enough so that they could look each other in the eyes as they spoke.

'Santana, we talked about this'

'I know, but its just,' she sniffed, 'Its one thing to know mentally and another thing entirely when it actually happens, you know? I miss her already as it is, when we were just separated by distance but now...I'm just worried about our daughter, Britt, and I want my baby back'

'I know you do, Honey, I know,' Brittany said soothingly. 'And its hard for me too, and I designed it and developed the science behind the damn thing. I can only imagine how hard it is for you,' she paused to gather her thoughts briefly before she continued, 'but we knew it was coming soon. We knew it was going to happen, because we both remember her being in our timeline in senior year – it never went away, so it has to be a fixed point. It always happens, it always has to happen,' she said, explaining yet again whilst also trying to comfort her wife who clearly still just took her brilliant wife's word for it, not understanding the science behind it herself. 'So since she always arrives in our senior year, she always has to time-travel, and she always will have had to travel _from_ somewhere else. And when she did come our senior year, she had just turned fifteen,' she added. 'We knew this was going to happen sooner or later,' Brittany said, in as soothing a voice as she could muster whilst trying to remain as upbeat about the process as possible – after all, she was hurting as well, what with her daughter being transported back in time, she was going to be terrified and sad and alone, and she hated the thought of her daughter being any of those things, let alone all of them at once.

'I know that, B, but it still hurts,' Santana said.

'I know, San, I know. I miss her so much already,' Brittany said. 'But remember, our past selves are going to take care of her, and they'll get her back to us in the current timeline by dinnertime tomorrow. And remember all the bonding that not only the three of us did then, but just the two of us as well...we grew so close, and having her, like that, when we did, I think really solidified our relationship and clarified our priorities for us, don't you think?' Brittany said, and Santana nodded in agreement. 'Well, in order for those things to have happened, she needs to have had to travel back tin time from here in the first place.'

'I know,' Santana said, sighing heavily. 'Its just...she's still just a little girl. She's only fifteen. And I mean, she's going to be so scared and confused...and I was _so awful_ to her at first! She's going to be so hurt!' she said, bursting into fresh tears, remembering how awful she was to 'Sugar Motta' the first few months of her senior year of high school. Especially now that she understands that that Sugar is her Sugar, her precious little baby who she brought screaming into this world fifteen years ago that day, and who is, even though she would never admit it, the biggest Mama's Girl in the planet – having her own future mother treating her like shit would absolutely destroy her, and yet, Santana knew that that was exactly what was going to happen. When she had calmed down enough to speak and dried her tears again, she continued, 'and I know that she had just turned fifteen when we knew her our senior year, but she didn't tell us her actual birthday for a while, and now that the timeline is in its proper order, or however you call it, part of me had always hoped that maybe that bit was a little white lie she told our younger selves to protect us – the current us, the ones she knows as the ones who gave birth to her and raised her, you know, from the pain of losing her on her birthday' she said sighing. Before Brittany could come up with a response, she continued yet again,

'And yes, I know we haven't lost her lost her, but it feels that way! And yes I also know that the entire reason we agreed to let her stay home alone whilst we are here is because we thought maybe now is when it happens, it still doesn't make it any less scary or hurt any less. My little baby who only turned 15 today, B...it seems like only yesterday we brought her home from the hospital, and now we're leaving her home alone, and today she time travelled 21 years into the past, and I'm just...I'm having a rough time handling it, is all'

Brittany smiled indulgently at her wife, and gave her a strong, warm, all-encompassing hug. Santana had always loved her hugs, and had told her on multiple occasions that she thought that she was the best hugger in the world. And today, especially she knew that Santana was in need of a hug from her wife who also happened to be her best friend since they were seven years old.

'I know, Honey, I know. I feel the same way, too. I miss her terribly already and can't wait until we have her back, until she's back home and in our arms and we can hug her and kiss her and spoil her and make sure she never leaves our sight ever again...but you have to trust me. I invented the technology and developed the science. She will be safe. She will be with us – even if its not the current us – almost the entire time. And, more importantly, we'll get her back tomorrow,' she said, her own voice catching with emotion as she spoke.

'Come on,' Santana said to Brittany, offering a hand to her wife and helping her get up from the couch, 'We need to pack and say goodbye to our parents if we're going to get to the airport in enough time to catch that redeye back home'

Almost immediately, the squeezing sensation stopped, and the almost-too-colourful world returned from the blackness that had overtaken Sugar's vision momentarily. However, when her vision returned and the feeling of nausea had subsided, it was replaced by one of shock and confusion. She still had no idea what had happened, but what she did know was that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong. Instead of the sealed garage of her family's house in Queens in the year 2033, she was somewhere...else. Instead of the familiar darkness of the garage, she found herself in an unfamiliar carpark that appeared to be open to the bright, sun-filled sky, and rather than the familiar urban landscape of New York City – even if Queens had more of a semi-suburban feel to it at times, it was still New York – the car park was surrounded on three sides by bright, well-watered and green grass of a well-cared for public space, accompanied by tall, broad, leafy trees of many varieties, flowers, shrubberies, and a very well-cared-for play park of much better quality than any she'd seen or used in New York, even the 'nice' ones in Queens. She had literally no idea where she was. And despite all that, she still had no music in the damn car. And whilst that was no longer her primary concern, she was still concerned all the same. Turning to the display that belonged to what she thought was the radio, she saw a very disturbing display. In one line, which followed a heading labelled 'departure' it read 23.08.2033. On the following line below the departure line, which was labelled 'arrival', it read: 24.08.2012.

_Oh, shit. _

The DeLorean wasn't just her Mommy's first car, that she had restored with Sugar's grandfather, it was also the time machine that she had built when she was in high school and college. Sugar had, of course, grown up with stories from her mommies about the time machine and building and researching it, and how Mommy had developed parts of it in secret when she was at MIT, and how none of her friends or classmates except for her Mami had believed she was smart enough to do any of those things. Of course, Sugar also grew up knowing that her Mommy, Dr. Brittany S. Pierce-Lopez was one of the greatest scientific minds of her generation, and that, though scatter-brained and exceptionally silly and eccentric, she didn't understand how that could make so many people she had grown up with believe she was anything but a genius – after all, weren't all the greatest minds that way? So, she had no doubt that if anyone would have been able to build a time machine, it would have been her Mommy. But she had never thought to actually check to see if the stories were real before. Of course, at this point, it was too little, too late.

_Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. _

She had somehow managed to accidentally travel back in time in her Mommy's old DeLorean-turned-time-machine. _Well, no matter_, she thought to herself, as she found the input for the arrival and departure dial and reversed them so that she would arrive back in her proper time, _I'll just travel back to my own time_. She flipped the switch and pressed the button and nothing happened. She tried again, and still nothing happened. She tried one more time and still nothing happened, when she noticed red light flashing on the dashboard and a vaguely feminine robotic voice repeating the phrase,

'Low Fuel. Time Jump capabilities disabled until more fuel is added to the vehicle.'

_Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. _

Sugar desperately started searching the car-cum-time-machine for any kind of manual or something that would tell her what kind of fuel she needed to add to the car, and where, in order to get back home. What she found, however, was instantly both worse and better. She found a small stack of money amounting to a few thousand dollars, which Sugar estimated could at least keep her fed, clothed, housed and entertained to a reasonable high school level for a few weeks, until she figured out how to get home. She also found a yellowing newspaper cutout, which proclaimed itself to be the Lima Examiner, "The Best Local Newspaper in Western Ohio", dated to the 24 August, 2012; she also found a piece of lined notebook paper with her Mommy's messy scrawl on it – written in coloured pencil, of course, since she switched to pencil from crayon during her time at MIT – with a few notes that Sugar took to be a message of some sort. The scrawled notes read "fixed points fixed, time traveller can't change future if B and S still have memory", "time travel actually very stable", "Sugar 'Motta' in Senior Year" and, "come back soon as possible! Set arrival evening of 24 Aug 2033".

Sugar was a very intelligent young lady, and whilst her Mommy's scrawling which were obviously meant as notes for herself, not her very confused and very scared just-turned-fifteen-year-old-daughter-who-just-wanted-her-mommies, she was able to piece together some semblance of meaning from the notes and the newspaper clipping, and some beginnings of a plan to get herself home, to her own time and her own family. Filled with a new sense of determination, she turned the key in the ignition and was startled to find that the car jumped into life immediately, and the gas tank read it was nearly full. _That must mean that the fuel the time machine runs on is different than the gas for the regular engine_, Sugar thought to herself. Wiping away the tears of despair that had begun to form in her eyes and filled with a new sense of purpose and determination, she put the car into gear and eased it onto the main road towards what she hoped was the town in which her grandparents still lived, where her mothers had grown up and fell in love, and which she had visited many times in her own proper timeline, driving for the first time ever in what was technically 6 years before she was even born, in order to find a motel in which she could stay.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: So, I don't now, and never will promise updates on a regular basis or any such thing, but nevertheless I feel bad for taking a while for this update. I've been trying very hard to work out how to tell the story I want to tell as best I can (and I'm still not sure I've succeeded, but I've done the best I can, I think). Also, I know this chapter is going to seem very short and abrupt, but its the only logical place I can think to do so. A brief note, this chapter jumps ahead a few months, but the next few chapters will go back and sort of show whats gone on in between. I hope that makes sense. Also, I apologise for the length because I live in Israel and my city is under attack from the Hamas rockets, so I'm spending a lot of time in and out of bomb shelters as of late. Also, I'm an MA student in archaeology and I am doing field work and such most of the summer, so my writing time is significantly hampered that way. I hope you still enjoy. Happy reading. **

The Past, November, 2012

In her time, Sugar thought, slushies were a delicious – of forbidden outright by her moms and now she was beginning to understand why – frozen treat, not a projectile weapon. She had learned over the past few months that she had been living in the past – her moms' senior year 21 year in the past, to be precise – that this was not necessarily the case at William McKinley High School in the year 2012.

Of course, she wasn't there by choice. If she had her way, she would be at home, in her own timeline, in New York City in 2033, with her moms and aunts and uncles all their proper ages and knowing her and loving her like she was used to. If she had her choice everything would be normal the way it was supposed to be and her mommies and aunts and uncles would be smothering her in love and affection like they aways did. But because she accidentally travelled back in time in that stupid time machine, which now was, of course, out of fuel – stranding her here until she could figure out a way to get home. And it hurt so much some days that she thought she would die from the pain.

The fact that she saw, and interacted with, the younger versions of the people she missed the most in the world, made it that much harder. The fact that every day in the corridors she would see, and sometimes have to interact with Brittany – the future Dr. Brittany Pierce-Lopez, her Mommy, Santana – the future Santana Pierce-Lopez, her Mami, and at least one, if not all, of her aunts and uncles: her Auntie Quinn, her Uncle Puck, her Aunt Rachel, her Uncles Kurt and Blaine, her Aunt Tina and Uncle Mike, and of course none of them knew who she was in this timeline, and it was extremely hard on her.

At first, she had tried keeping her distance as much as possible. Part of this was fear of letting slip information she shouldn't: either by revealing herself to the people who in 6 years' time would welcome her into the world as her family, or else something else about the future, risking disrupting the space-time continuum, even though her Mommy's notes essentially told her not to worry about that because such a thing doesn't exist. Nevertheless, she knew that she could still be locked up and committed in an institution for being a crazy person if she let too much slip, and then she would never get home, which made it easy for her to keep her distance at first. But, as time went on, and the time machine didn't 'recharge' on its own, and she couldn't figure it out on her own, she knew that if she wanted to not be stranded in the wrong time and get back to her proper timeline, she would have to get closer to the person who created it – Brittany, her Mommy.

That, of course, was when things got really tough. Seeing, but not interacting, with the teenage versions of her mothers was a bit difficult, but do-able. But when she had to start interacting with a befriending the teenaged versions of her mothers – especially when they both looked so similar, if a bit younger, than the parents she knew and loved from her time – that was so much harder. She knew, mentally, that it was going to be hard, but no amount of mental training and telling herself that they aren't her parents yet and not to blame them could prepare her for the evisceral pain she felt, with regularity, as she interacted with the younger versions of her parents. Brittany treated her friendly enough, but with reservation, barriers. Sugar wasn't this Brittany's precious baby girl whom she smothered with hugs and kisses, or would call her her little 'Sugar lump' or 'Sugar baby' and would play silly little games and giggle, and for whom her bright white smile would always reach her shining blue eyes. No, that relationship did not exist yet at this stage in the timeline, and it hurt.

But worse still was Santana. Her Mami. The woman who carried her to term and then gave birth to her, bringing her screaming into this world, treated her, most of the time, with suspicion and sometimes outright contempt. Sugar of course knew how her Mami could be at times, as she'd seen her let out her inner Snixx before many times, but it had never, ever been directed at her. Likewise, all the times before she had been scolded at yelled at by her Mami, it had never felt as bad as this had, because she knew that despite it all, above all else, it always came from a place of worry and love. This – this was something else entirely.

Hearing her own mother – the Mami who she loved more than anything in the world, the woman who gave birth to her, or would give birth to her, time travel still confused her a lot sometimes – calling her things like 'richy bitch' or calling her a whore; even after she had – discretely of course – arranged for the formation of the Trouble Tones, all the horrible things Santana said about her singing and dancing – even though it was true that she didn't know Sugar was being terrible on purpose – they all hurt more than she could have imagined. And no amount of rationalising and telling herself that its just because she doesn't know could make the pain stop. There were so many days when she would simply go home and cry herself to sleep.

But it wasn't really her home, with her bed, in her room. It was just a cheap motel roo she was living in. It wasn't her room, with her bed, with her sheets, and her music, and her posters, and the mural that her and her mommies had painted on her wall when she was ten, or anything else that was right and familiar. This room also lacked a very important feature – Mr. Kazoo, her blue stuffed elephant. She had had him since she was a day old, and whilst she hadn't slept with him under her arm since she was 10 – except of course during lightning storms or after she had seen a particularly scary movie or when she was very sad and had to cry herself to sleep – he still had a permanent spot on her bed, and like a palace guard at Buckingham Palace, he still kept an ever vigilant and watchful eye over her as she slept. And it was times like this, more than ever that she wanted nothing more than to snuggle close with Mr. Kazoo and cry until either her Mommy or Mami would come into her room and rub her back soothingly, and sometimes let her crawl into one or both of their laps, like she did when she was little, whilst her mothers would stroke her back and comb her hair whilst they watched tv until she was calm enough to sleep. But she couldn't, because Mr. Kazoo was back in New York, 2033, along with the parents who new and loved her and called her 'Sugar lump' and 'sweetie' and 'princesa' and even simply 'mija'. And it was by far the most painful thing she had ever dealt with thus far in her fifteen years of life.

It had, however, slowly been getting better – not like it should be, of course – but Santana was beginning to at least be somewhat friendly most of the time. Brittany, too, had begun to drop some of her guards down as well. They weren't the parents she knew and loved, but it was better than before and she would take it. She still hoped, of course, every day to be able to get back to her own time and family, but at least now she wasn't crying herself to sleep every night.

Which brought Sugar back to the present time. It was now November and Sectionals were around the corner, as was the State Representative election. Sue's opponent had run his 'Lesbian Cheerleader' ad, but it didn't affect the girls much as they had been Out and Proud since Junior Prom last year and they had been shocked and pleasantly surprised by the show of support they had received not only from the Hummel campaign and Kurt's dad, but also from Sue's campaign, as well as from herself, personally. Of course, they all still got slushied, frequently, but as far as anyone could tell it was because they were glee club geeks, not for any other reason.

These were the thoughts going through Sugar Pierce-Lopez's mind as she approached the sinks in the nearest girls' toilet, cursing violently in Spanish.

'Pinches pedazos de mierda...idiotas estúpidos chingate cabrónes atletas con la mierda de sesos...Piensan que puede hacer lo que carajo quieren camo si fueran dueños este escuela porque juegan los deportes...barbáros estúpidos pinche alcóholicas futuras y futuros abusadores del niños con vergas muy piqueñitos...' she grumbled glumly to herself as she tried to wipe the red slushie out of her eyes.

Her thoughts and ranting was interrupted by a chuckling from Santana who she had not seen when she entered the toilets – a combination of slushie in her eyes and the fact that Santana had been in one of the cubicles ensuring this fact.

'You know,' she said, moving closer to Sugar and turning on and adjusting the taps for her as she spoke, 'if you were my daughter, I'd probably smack you with la chancla and then wash your mouth out with soap for using that kind of language,' she said, pausing as she tried to help Sugar get the last of the slushie out of her eyes, 'though I can't say that I disagree with you,' she said, chuckling as Sugar thanked whatever deities that existed for the fact that she was currently covered in red slushie so that Santana couldn't see her blush, both at the words themselves, but also the strange closeness Sugar was feeling to Santana at the moment, and also the irony of the statement – since she was, in fact, Santana's daughter, and she had been given that exact punishment multiple times for using rude words in front of grown-ups.

'Come on, Sugar, let's get you cleaned up,' Santana said, wetting a paper towel and leading the younger girl to the sink. 'Oh, look, its gotten all over your shirt, too,' she said in what Sugar recognised – for the first time since arriving in the past – as her "Mami voice". 'That was new, wasn't it?'

Sugar nodded the affirmative.

'Right,' Santana said. 'Well, ven aquí. We might be able to prevent it from staining if we get it clean now,' she said, handing Sugar wetted paper towels and pushing her towards a cubicle and closing the door. 'OK, now hand me your shirt and I'll try to get it clean for you whilst you try to get your hair and face.'

Whilst she was in the cubicle, Santana called out to the strangely familiar – in a strange way she couldn't quite place – girl,

'Hey Sugar?'

'Hmm'

'I didn't know you could speak such good Spanish. I didn't know you were Latina...I thought you were like, Italian, or something'

'Oh, uh, I'm uh, only half Latin'

'Bueno. You know, I thought that I knew every Latin person in this cow-town and they were all related to me, but I guess not, eh?' Santana said, unaware – thankfully so, by Sugar's perspective – of the other girl's wide, almost crazy, eyes, and shocked face.

Sugar took some deep breaths momentarily to steady her nerves so her voice wouldn't shake when she replied.

'Yeah, I guess so,' she said, attempting a small chuckle.

'Is it your Mom or your Dad?'

'My Mami'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah'

'Where does she come from?'

'Well, she was born here in Ohio, but her Mami – my Abuela – was born in Puerto Rico and my Abuelo is Mexican,' she said, oblivious to the way Santana's eyebrows arched in the minutest show of surprise, as she continued, 'My othe-er, my Daddy,' she said, barely catching herself before she uttered the more familiar and comfortable 'other mommy', even though she was very much uncomfortable calling her Mommy Brittany her Daddy, '...is just, white, I guess. I don't really know where her family comes from, its not something we put a lot of emphasis on in our family'

Santana did, however, notice the slip up. She didn't, of course, know what she was actually originally going to say, but she knew that 'Daddy' wasn't it. She didn't, of course let this on, as she had to discuss this, and many other things, with Brittany first before she acted rashly. But she did notice, and her eyebrows arched ever so slightly higher in surprise. They continued their conversation for a few more moments before it died down in a natural lull as both girls focused on the cleaning they had set themselves to.

A short while later, Sugar emerged from the cubicle, her hair and face wet but clean, and no longer sticky with slushie dripping into her eyes, and wearing a much wetter, but cleaner, shirt.

'Better?' Santana asked, smiling.

Sugar nodded the affirmative, and before she could second guess herself or the older girl could tell her off, she pulled Santana, who for the first time in this timeline reminded Sugar of her Mami as she would become, into a quick, but powerful, hug.

'Thanks, Ma – Mamita,' she said, hoping the general Latina term of endearment could cover her near slip-up.

Santana was almost too shocked by the hug to notice. Almost. But she did notice. She also noticed that tingly feeling, in the back of her mind that made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up, that she had been having periodically this year when she was around Sugar come back again, especially strong when the younger girl had hugged her. Now she was definitely convinced it meant something, that there was something more there that met the eye. The tingly feeling definitely meant something, she was sure of it, like Brittany and her had been discussing almost since the day she showed up the first day of school. Now she, too, was convinced there was something about Sugar, and they were going to find out what. But they were both already over 10 minutes late for rehearsal, so she decided to let it slide. For now. Motioning towards the door, she said,

'We're going to be late for rehearsal. We should get going. Shall we?'

Sugar nodded happily in agreement and led the way from the girls toilets to the rehearsal room, where Brittany, Mercedes and the other Trouble Tones were waiting.

When they finally reached the rehearsal room, Brittany's eyes locked with Santana's as she asked her girlfriend,

'What took you so long, San? I was starting to worry'

Santana chuckled at her girlfriend, as Sugar tried to hide her obvious happy beaming at seeing the younger versions of her parents so obviously smitten for each other, when Santana replied,

'Sugar got slushied by the hockey team. I helped her clean herself up,' in a voice that, to the casual observer, seemed nonchalant and matter-of-fact, but which Brittany knew by the look in Santana's face, really meant "we need to talk about something important later".

'Oh, ok,' Brittany said, smiling happily in response to both the verbal, and non-verbal, communications. 'I'm sorry you got slushied, Sugar,' she added to the younger girl.

'Thanks,' Sugar replied.

'Ok, now that everybody is finally here,' Ms Cocoran said brightly, 'we have less than a month until Sectionals, so now we are in crunch-time for preparations. So, let's get started. Ok, guys, to your positions...'


	3. Chapter 3: Discoveries, part 1

**A/N: OK, so I was woken up at 6 this morning to an air raid alarm and had to go to the bomb shelter. From then on, I was awake and couldn't go back to sleep, so I decided to try to whip up one more chapter before I head back out to the field this evening. This is of course a shorter chapter and will be the first in a series of smaller, short-ish chapter with similar formatting, that will show the time elapsed from the 'current' time period to the time in November that took place in Chapter 2. I don't know when the next chapter will be up, so I will upload this one before I leave for the field. Enjoy and happy reading. **

The Past: Mid-September, 2012

It had been almost three weeks since Sugar Pierce-Lopez found herself stranded in the past, during her moms' Senior Year of high school in Lima, Ohio. Because she knew the town well enough from frequent visits to the town where both sets of her grandparents still lived – thankfully the town hadn't changed too much from her time to now, or was it the other way round? Time travel still confused her – and stories her mothers used to tell her, and the fact that she was a pretty clever girl for her age and had a good head on her shoulders, she was able to at least set herself up with her basic needs: she found herself a cheap studio motel off Route 8 just outside of town in which she could live, cheaply, for a decent amount of time, should she need to; she managed to buy herself appropriate food and clothing and register herself as a student at McKinley High School as a Sophomore.

That was the easy part, she had come to realise. In the days and weeks that followed, she tried desperately to remain as inconspicuous as possible, not wanting to have to interact with the younger versions of her loved ones, knowing it would be too painful for her to do so, and also extremely difficult to not give anything away. So, instead she focused her efforts on remaining as 'invisible' to all the people who mattered, and tried extremely hard to find a way to get herself back to her own time. Every day in the morning she would check the fuel gauges of the time machine to see if perhaps it would recharge on its own; it didn't, of course, but a girl could hope, couldn't she? Then she began scouring the library for the book that she remembered her mommies telling her they found in the McKinley library their senior year which provided the remaining information Brittany needed to develop her time machine into a working prototype. She searched and scoured the library from top to bottom for over a week, but to no avail; she found no such book. It was about this time that she realised that if she had any hope of getting home at all, she would have to get close enough to the younger versions of her parents in order to help Brittany get the time machine finished in order to help her get home. This, of course, meant one thing: glee club. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem: Sugar was a good singer. Perhaps not as good as her Aunt Rachel, the Broadway star, but she had both genetic predisposition to musical talent as well as lessons and encouragement from her family her entire life, including singing lessons from the same Aunt Rachel. And she did her fair share of performing in her own right in her own timeline, though she wasn't in show choir, she often auditioned for, and performed in, school musicals and other drama productions. She also knew, both from her mothers' stories and from her observations having been in this timeline for a few weeks, that tensions were high amongst the New Directions, especially amongst the female members, such as her parents, Mercedes, and Rachel Berry, and that somehow this tension amongst the girls later led to the formation of the Trouble Tones. So she knew that she had to tread carefully and that if she auditioned with her normal talent and vigour it could very well cause serious problems for everyone involved.

To say that she blew the audition was, she thought, the understatement of the century. It was so bad, in fact, that the famously accepting Mr Shue that she had heard stories about (but met only once when she was seven), who had a firm rule that anyone who tried out for glee got in, told her that he couldn't let her into glee club because they had competition coming up and he couldn't risk everyone else's chances to let her in. He then offered to help her improve her singing and try out again next year, but she snapped angrily at him,

'You must be tone-deaf, because I worked that song like a stripper pole'

She didn't realise how hurt she was that she couldn't be a part of the glee club. The glee club that accepted _everyone_. She had never had her performances critiqued and criticised so harshly but in such a polite way, and it surprised her how much it hurt her. And it wasn't because she was some spoiled princess in that regard – although she figured in some ways she might be – it was because she honestly had never faced rejection like that before, and she also didn't realise how important it was to her until she couldn't have it.

Later that day, she was at her locker, still fuming angrily over the debacle at her glee audition, wondering when the Trouble Tones would be formed and how she could ensure she would be involved in that group, in order to ensure she would be welcomed into the glee club when the Trouble Tones disbanded and repatriated themselves to the New Directions after Sectionals, when she was surprised by a familiar voice.

'Hi, Sugar'

It was Brittany, standing at her locker, talking to her. She jumped, startled, and she would have sworn with her hand on a thousand bibles that both her feet left the ground for a full five seconds, before her head hit the top of her locker and she came back down to earth, pulling her head – and rubbing it softly – out of the locker to look at the younger version of her Mommy, who was at her locker, speaking to her, despite her attempts to remain anonymous and incognito for most of her time up to now.

'Oh, god, are you okay, Sugar? I didn't mean to frighten you. I do that a lot, sometimes. Santana says I'm like a ninja or something cos I sneak up to people without them realising I'm there...' Brittany said, rambling with worry that the younger girl might have hurt herself.

'No, no, its fine. I'm fine...Brittany,' Sugar said, forcing herself to use her Mommy's name, rather than one of the tens of terms of endearment she would have rather used. 'You just startled me, that's all. What's up?'

Brittany smiled brightly knowing that the younger girl wasn't hurt, but then the smile left her face, and she looked the younger girl directly in her eyes and asked solemnly,

'Why did you sing so badly at your audition?'

'What do you mean? I worked that song like a stripper pole.'

'Sugar.'

Sugar sighed. Even as a teenager, apparently, Brittany was able to see through people and was able to get the information she wanted out of them with just changes in her tone of voice.

'I guess I'm just a bad singer. Are you here to rub it in my face?'

'You're not a bad singer'

'Clearly, I am'

'No, but you sang that song terribly, and I want to know why'

'How do you know that that isn't just how I sing? You should just be glad that I'm not holding you guys back from doing well at Sectionals'

'I heard you rehearsing the other day, in the auditorium, after auditions for West Side Story. I've heard you sing before, Sugar, and you were good – very good – at least as good as Santana. Why did you sing so bad today? Is it because you're new and don't want to be seen as a threat so you can make friends?'

Sugar just stared at her future mother, dumbly, her words moving but no sounds were coming out. Brittany just smirked, and winked at the younger girl.

'You really shouldn't worry about it so much,' Brittany said as she turned to walk away. 'Things like that tend to work themselves out the way they are meant to happen, or at least, that's what I believe,' she said. As she began to walk away, she called over her shoulder, 'And don't worry about not being able to sing here, Santana told me about a second, all-girls choir. Maybe you could join that?' She called to the younger girl, who was left staring, slightly dumbfounded, at the other girl's back.

As Brittany walked away from the younger girl, she noted once more the distinctly unique, and quite strange, feeling she got whenever she saw or was around the other girl. It was a feeling which she had never felt before, and could therefore not define. It was like there was a strange sense of deep familiarity with the girl, almost as if she were family – but not like glee family, or second-cousin-once-removed family, either, but close, immediate, family – but more than that it was like there was some kind of...otherness to the connection that she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was like a protectiveness, a desire, if not a physical need, to make sure the younger girl was happy and cared for, coupled with a warmth and a deep and abiding love. But it was not like the romantic kind of feelings of that nature which she had for Santana – and which she knew that they shared – she knew that that was not the case, but at the same time, it was very similar. Every time she saw, or even heard the younger girls' name or voice, let alone interacted with her, she felt a calming warmness in the deep valleys of her heart, and a strange feeling on her skin that made the tiny, fine hairs on the back of her neck stand up on edge. It was a wholly unfamiliar feeling to her, but not one which was unwelcome. She just didn't know what it was. She knew that Santana would probably better be able to explain to her what it was, but she wanted to see if she could gather more information on her own first, before going to Santana, so she didn't look like a crazy person. She knew that Santana loved her and all her quirks and would never look down on or judge her, but that didn't mean that she didn't want to not appear crazy to her girlfriend.

This wasn't the first time she'd felt this feeling, associated with Sugar, either. It had started almost immediately at the beginning of the school year, when the girl first arrived, seemingly out of the blue for her sophomore year on the day of the purple piano project. She remembered it perfectly, but not for the reason most people did – that Santana and Quinn had lit one of the pianos on fire in some kind of protest, or something – but because that strange feeling was one of the few things, other than her alone time with Santana that was able to bring her out of the funk she had been in the last few weeks previously, after she had come out to her parents, to disastrous affect. To say that it did not go the way she had expected was an understatement. She had been Out and Proud to everyone but her parents since Junior Prom last year, and the only reason she hadn't told her own parents sooner was because she was helping Santana with her issues relating to the rejection she felt by her Abuela after she came out to the elder Mexican woman. She had been expecting her own parents to be more or less okay with it, and to love her the way they always had. That had, however, not happened at all. What had happened was that, after hours of yelling and crying and arguing with each other, her father, who was a prominent lawyer for many 'traditional marriage' organisations on the State and Federal level, and could therefore not afford the scandal of having an openly non-straight daughter in a committed, long-term relationship with another woman, told her that she could either go to live with her Aunt in New Mexico and attend one of those 'pray the gay away' camps to 'cure her disease' or she could leave his house forever. She, of course, chose Santana. She was given ten minutes to collect her things, and ever since she called Santana to pick her up from the kerb in front of her childhood home, with two duffel bags full of as many of her possessions as she could fit, and Lord Tubbington perched protectively across her lap, she knew that her life would never be the same.

Luckily for her, Santana's parents had a big house in Lima Heights Adjacent, which despite Lima Heights being an extremely dangerous part of town which Santana never allowed Brittany to go to alone, Lima Heights Adjacent was actually a very well-off suburban community, populated by doctors, bankers, lawyers, etc. Additionally, Santana's parents were almost never home, and were now effectively practically living abroad, either on this fund-raising tour or that one, or participating in this worthy medical charity, or helping with that emergency in this or that third world nation; Santana never said anything, because she knew that her parents were being largely selfless, and doing very good things for other people much less fortunate than she was, but Brittany knew that it still bothered her immensely that her parents basically spent maybe three weeks at home per year, and much of that time was spent at the hospital catching up on paperwork. The most time they spent talking with each other was occasional – at best, fortnightly, and usually less often – skype chats with her parents in some foreign location or another. They showed their love for Santana through ensuring she was financially taken care of. Which was nice, and the girl appreciated it, and knew they loved her in their own way, but it was just not the way she wanted or needed. However, the one silver lining to this was the benefit that the Lopez family home was, effectively, Santana's home, which she lived in and ran domestically, by herself. Which meant that when Brittany was kicked out of her own childhood home, she moved in with Santana, without anyone having to ask permission from anyone else. She and Santana were living together, in _Santana's_ home. They were, even at this early stage, beginning to build their lives together, in all its mundane domesticity, even before they had finished high school, and she loved it. She did. She loved it, but she should have been ecstatic – and she would have been, considering the huge step it was and what it meant, especially considering how not very long ago they were both deeply in their respective closets – but she couldn't bring herself to be as fully ecstatic as she would otherwise have been, had the situation leading to it been different, because no matter how she tried, she still was in a funk due to the reminder that she and Santana were living together because her family had kicked her out of her childhood home because of her sexuality, and it made her sad.

That day, though, with the purple piano project, when she first saw Sugar, changed everything. It was the day she first felt this strange, weird, exciting new feeling, which effectively drove away her funk almost as well as the special alone time she and Santana shared together. And whilst this feeling was not as effective for driving away her funk and her ghosts as Santana was, it was close. She was curious as to what this feeling was, this familiarity and protectiveness and un-nameable 'otherness' was that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end whenever she heard, saw, or interacted with the younger girl whom she had never met before, and why it was triggered by her and only her. Brittany was curious as to whom this Sugar Motta was, and where she came from. After all, who just randomly shows up at a new high school the first week of _sophomore year_ anyway? And besides, she read the district real estate register, as she did every year before school starts, so that she could be able to welcome any new kids who seemed interesting, but this year there seemed to be no changes from the year before – no one moved in, no one moved out – so who was this Sugar Motta, where did she come from, and why wasn't she hear last year for her Freshman year? Brittany wasn't sure why she felt like she had to know this information about the new girl, but she knew that she did. All she knew was that she felt that it was very, very important that she figure out what was 'up' with the new girl, and if there was one thing Brittany S. Pierce always did, was figure out a way to get what she wanted.

As she passed the auditorium where a week and half ago the auditions for West Side Story were being held and she found out the most recent, exciting, and confusing information about Sugar, she reflected on what happened.

_She had gone to the auditorium to watch Santana's audition for West Side Story. She was a shoe-in for Maria, if anyone was, and they were both confident both before and after the audition that she would get an important part, if not the lead itself. Almost immediately after her performance, Santana left, carrying more of Brittany's campaign posters to hang up for the student elections. Brittany, however, hung back, tidying up hers and Santana's things into their bags, and chatting with Artie and a few other people before leaving. Just as she was about to leave, however, she saw Sugar enter. _

_'I'm sorry, Miss...?' Coach Bieste prompted, also seeing her enter. _

_'Uh...Pi...er, uh...Mo...Motta...' Sugar said, hesitantly, as if she couldn't remember her own surname. That was okay, though, she thought, because she used to do that, too, when she was younger and nervous. _

_'Right, Miss Motta, I'm sorry, but auditions are over,' Coach Bieste, replied, glancing down at the clipboard she was holding, '...and I don't even see your name on the sign-up sheet' _

_'Oh, that's okay, I'm not here to audition. I was just wondering if I could maybe...use the auditorium? If you're done using the space?' She asked politely and timidly. _

_'Of course,' Coach Beiste said, with Artie nodding in agreement. Artie also happened to be looking at her in a distinctly non-platonic way, which bothered Brittany immensely for a reason she could not explain. 'We'll be out of here in about five minutes,' she finished, motioning everyone else, including Brittany, out. _

_Five minutes later, Brittany had doubled-back and entered the auditorium via the side stage-door, and sat in the shadows, intent to see or hear what the girl needed the auditorium for. What met her was not what she expected. Sugar sat at the piano on the stage, playing piano and singing. She was not only singing, but singing absolutely beautifully, as well. Sugar was definitely a better singer than she was. Her voice, Brittany thought, was best described as sounding almost like Santana's, if Santana had taken voice lessons from Rachel Berry. She sang, basically, like an angel. Her voice was beautiful, and moving, and she was able to capture emotions in her singing that Brittany only wished she was able to do. She was entranced, and mesmerised by the small singing sophomore in front of her, who was also playing her own accompaniment on the piano. And, the song she was singing also happened to be Songbird. And, whilst Brittany admitted that her favourite rendition of that particular song would always be Santana's, Sugar's definitely came in a close second. It was so hauntingly beautiful. _She's amazing _Brittany thought to herself. _I really hope she joins glee club. _ As the song ended, Brittany quietly left before the younger girl could know that she had had an audience, the strange sensation she had been having around the younger girl back, and as strong as ever. _

A few days later, when Santana and Brittany were lying together naked in bed, Brittany felt that they were both sufficiently relaxed and happy to breach the topic of Sugar.

'San?'

'Hmm?'

'What do you think about Sugar?'

'That new girl who auditioned for glee club?'

'Yeah'

'I dunno, I mean, we haven't really interacted much, except for her terrible singing. If thats any indication, we should probably stay away from her, eh?' Santana joked, stroking the spots on Brittany's body she knew she liked.

'Don't say that about her San'

'What?'

'That she's a terrible singer and we should stay away from her'

'What? Why? We were both there, Brittany...'

'No, she's not, San!' Brittany said forcefully. More forcefully, perhaps, than was strictly necessary. 'She threw her audition. I don't know why, but I think its cos she's knew and wanted to make friends and didn't want to rattle Rachel or Mercedes' cages...'

'Brittany...'

'No, Santana, I'm serious! I heard her sing – really sing! After your West Side Story audition, she went in to the auditorium and sang, when she thought no one was listening. And she's good San, really good. Like, almost as good as you,' she said, stroking her girlfriend's ego a bit as she went, 'she was singing, and playing the piano too – she was singing Songbird, and it was beautiful. But don't worry, I still love yours the best'

'Ok, so she threw her audition. Why?'

'I don't know, I confronted her the other day, but she didn't answer me. I think we should invite her to join the all-girl group though,' she said, taking a deep breath before continuing. 'But that's not all. Like, there's just something...odd...I guess, about her. Like, I can't put my finger on exactly what it is, but there's just something about her that is just slightly off'

'A lot of people say the same thing about you, B,' Santana said, linking her fingers with Brittany's.

'I know, and its their own loss because I'm pretty great,' she said, smiling

'Yes, you are. I love you,' Santana said, kissing Brittany.

'Aww, Baby,' Brittany said. 'I love you, too,' she replied, returning the kiss, before continuing. 'Which is why I want to get to know her a bit better. I want to find out what it is that's...off, with her. And its weird, like, when we're in school and I see her in the halls at school, or we talk or something briefly, or even if somebody talks about her at school, I get this weird feeling all over my body that I can't explain – I've never felt anything like it before...,'

As she said this, Santana visibly frowned and began to pull away, before saying,

'Why are you telling me this, Britt? Should I be worried? Who the fuck is this bitch?! I will cut her...'

Brittany cut her off with a kiss, and pulled her in close to her side, before she could let the angry rambling build and let Snixx come out to play.

'Oh god, no, San, nothing like that. Not at all. You're the only one for me. You're stuck with me, now, Honey,' she said, smiling, as she kissed Santana once more to reassure her. 'And even if that weren't true – but it is – do you honestly think after the orgasm you just gave me I would go to anyone else?' she asked, chuckling, remembering just how good the sex had been an hour or so previous. She continued, explaining what she meant, 'No, what I mean is, like, I get this weird feeling that I've never felt before. Like, the hairs on the back on my neck stand up, and I get this weird sense of familiarity, like I know her somehow, even though I've never met her before she showed up the day you lit that piano on fire before in my life, and its like, I feel strangely protective of her, and not just because she's so young and so small, but its like I just want to make sure she's safe and happy and protected, especially when I see Artie looking at her the way he does, like she's some kind of piece of meat or something...it makes my skin crawl...'

'And you used to _date_ Artie!' Santana guffawed.

'Only to make you jealous,' Brittany said, sadly. She continued, however, on the topic at hand. 'Do you know what that is? What it means, San? Have you felt it, maybe, too?'

Santana had felt it, of course, although she didn't realise she had – or more accurately, hadn't let herself admit to herself that she had – until that very moment, but she wasn't about to entertain some crazy theory based on a strange feeling Brittany had. Even if it was Brittany and she had this annoying tendancy to always be right about things.

'No, I have no idea, Babe,' Santana lied.

Brittany knew Santana was lying, and she had a pretty good idea why. She understood why, and because she understood why, despite their rule of always being honest with each other, she let this slide, this once, because she wanted to get more information, more understanding about this strange phenomenon before getting into it with Santana, especially if it would cause a row. So, instead of saying anything, she just cocked her eyebrow in a very Santana-esque way as a way of saying 'I know you're lying to me, but I'll let it slide, this one time only'.

'I don't know what it means, Santana, but I think she's like, family, or something'

'What, like glee family?'

'No, like real family'

'Well, she does look kind of Latin, but she's not any cousin of mine that I'm aware of. Besides I think she's Italian or something'

'I don't think she's a cousin or anything like that'

'Well, what could she be then?'

'I don't know, Santana, that's why I want to try to get her to be more comfortable around us, maybe become our friend, so I can find out!'

'You don't need to shout at me, Brittany'

'You're right, San. I'm sorry, its just so frustrating, not knowing'

'I know, Babe, I know, but just take it in steps'

Brittany exhaled audibly, calming herself.

'Okay,' she said. 'But I need your help with this'

'Anything'

'I need you to be nicer to her'

'But I've hardly spoken to her!'

'Yes, but you've already called her "richy bitch" and a few other mean names'

'She was being a spoiled brat! I can't help what Snixx does! You know that!'

Brittany sighed. She did. She also knew it was Santana's modus operandi to let Snixx out to play very early on in meeting someone in order to see if they could handle her, to see if they were worth keeping around and getting to know.

'Yes, I know. I also know that you love letting Snixx meet new people very early on to see if they are worth getting to know, San,' Brittany said, looking at her pointedly, and Santana had the decency to look slightly cowed.

'I'm not asking you to be her best friend, or anything, San,' Brittany said. 'I mean, after all, that post is filled by me. But just...make an effort, please? I mean, look how far you've come this year. You've made so much progress, you're even friends – sort of – with Rachel, now. All I'm asking is you maybe give her a shot? Be a bit nicer to her, get to know her for her, rather than what Snixx thinks she is? Please? For me?'

That was it. That was all it took. That little request from Brittany and all Santana's resolve to stay distant crumbled away like nothing, after all, she couldn't deny Brittany anything, especially something so simple, and something that she really wanted so badly. Brittany asked, and she would provide.

And thus began, in earnest, Brittany's investigation of the new girl, Sugar Motta.


	4. Discoveries, part 2: the big reveal

**A/N: Standard disclaimer, I own nothing and make no profits. If I did, there would be no need for fanfiction because Glee would feature more Brittana (it wouldnt just be the Rachel Berry show) and Brittany would have more dialogue and the characters would be written like proper young adults. ANYWAY. This chapter is quite long, and it took me a while to get to a point where I was happy with it. I wasn't so sure I liked the beginning at first, and almost scrapped it, but I think I salvaged it well enough (though it still isn't perfect, I think its the best I can do). I was originally going to break this up into two, and possibly 3, separate chapters but I couldn't find a good breaking point and sometimes you just get the juices going and you just keep going until its done, and well, this is the result. Because I really wanted to get to the point it gets to at the end, which I hope people like. (AN 2 at the end). I hope that its good and you guys prefer longer chapters to shorter ones (I know I do). Again, as always, English is not my native language (I speak Hebrew and Spanish at home, I live in Israel) and I learned British English at school (so sometimes I might use British terms instead of American ones, even though I try my very best to keep everything 'in character'). If I use a term or a word or something wrong, please tell me. Happy reading!**

Chapter 4: Discoveries, part the Second: The Big Reveal

The Future: mid-October, 2012

Sugar needed to be more careful, she realised, because she was making more and more slips lately. Over the course of the past month, once Brittany had confronted her and left her confused, gaping at her back like a buffoon. She was both terrified that one, if not both, of her future mothers had already figured out who she was and she had been found out, but also excited and happy for the thought of the idea of not having to pretend to be something she wasn't anymore, and being able to have some semblance of the family life she craved, even here in the past, where she needed it more than ever. If there was one thing her mommies in her own, proper, timeline had taught her, it was that there was nothing more terrible than hiding the person you are "who you really are" especially from those closest to you, whom you love. They said that its like a disease, that eats you up inside, and turns your insides sour, like milk tha's been in the refrigerator a week too long, and it causes nothing but pain to both you and those you love. They had told her that this was a lesson that they both had learned, the hard way, first hand, before they had found the courage to come out and publicly be together as they wanted to. As a result, one of the most important rules in the Pierce-Lopez household was to always tell the truth, about everything. And this hiding the truth from the girls who, despite the fact that in this timeline she hadn't been born yet, and they were only three years older than she was, she saw as her Mami and Mommy, was eating her up inside. She wanted to tell them, and hug and kiss them and call them the familiar titles she was used to, and as best as she could have her mommies back in her life as she had before accidentally time travelling.

But, she also knew these were extenuating, very strange, circumstances. She also knew that going up to teenage Brittany and Santana and telling them the truth was out of the question for many, many reasons, so for the time being, at least, she knew that she had to hide the truth from them and also from everyone else as well. And so, she knew, she had to be much more careful, as she had already made more slips than she had planned on, and if she continued to slip up, someone was going to put two and two together, and then she would be in a whole heap of trouble. After all, she had already slipped up by throwing her audition too much, to the point that it made Brittany suspicious, and she had also slipped up by calling – or at least starting to before trying desperately to salvage – Santana "Mami" more than once, and she wasn't sure, but she thought she might have accidentally admitted to having two moms in the very same conversation, immediately after hastily and clumsily insinuating that Brittany, her other mommy was her "daddy".

So, as a way of attempting to cover up any future slips that she may accidentally use, she came up with an excuse: she started spreading around the school the rumour that she had Asberger's syndrome which she learned in school last year (in her own timeline) that sometimes people with Asberger's have trouble in social situations, invent stories, tend to say random things that a lot of people don't tend to understand and the like. It was the perfect cover. Of course, she had also been told in no uncertain terms by both her parents that having a social disorder like that was no laughing matter, and she should treat people with social disorders with the same respect she would anyone else especially because so many people treated her own mother, Brittany, so cruelly and differently when they were growing up, and she didn't even have a social disorder, and she was told in no uncertain terms that if she ever disrespected people who suffered such disorders that she would be grounded until eternity. So, she felt terribly for using Asberger's syndrome as her cover story, but she felt she had no other option. At the same time, she admitted to herself, she enjoyed getting to know her mothers. Back in her own timeline, she and her mothers were of course extremely close, and her mothers were very forthright about any topic she asked them. But to be there, seeing and experiencing it for herself, even from an outside perspective, as someone her mothers, in their present time, knew as only a friendly acquaintance, not their princesa, which hurt more than she would let herself admit, was something else entirely, and she loved it.

She found it especially hilarious watching the Irish exchange student, Rory, fawning all over Brittany. Especially because both of her moms had been Out and Proud since their Junior Prom the previous year. Of course, he didn't know that, per se, but it wasn't like they hid their relationship, and they kissed and held hands in the corridors as often as possible – which they still did in her timeline, which made her smile – and she thought he must either be a total idiot or blind if he thought he, or anyone else who was not Santana, had a shot with Brittany. It was not something she shared with her mothers, because it was too risky, and too personal and she was afraid she might let slip something she shouldn't, but all the same, she thought it was hilarious, and she loved seeing her mothers together, as teenagers, young, out and proud, and in love. It was beautiful. And despite the pain of being so close, but at the same time, so far, from her mommies and their love and the family she missed dearly, there were many other aspects of being in this time period she loved. For starters, seeing her moms, as well as her aunts and uncles perform in West Side Story was brilliant. She of course had grown up around music, and her parents singing and dancing was a regular occurrence in their house; and she had seen her Aunt Rachel and Uncles Mike and Kurt, all of whom were professional performers, perform many times at various shows in New York. But this was different. Seeing them all together like that, on stage, performing in the same production, was something she had never experienced before in her life, and she absolutely loved it.

And of course there was the clothes. In her time, clothes from the twenty-teens were starting to make a fashion comeback, but they were still modern re-imagining of what the fashion was. She was lucky that she had two moms, both of whom still had some of their clothes from the period, but she was too small in stature to fit into most of them, except a couple pair of jeans which her Mami had shortened so she could fit into them. The fact that she was able to buy actual twenty-teens fashions, in the actual twenty-teens was an amazing thing, for her. She only hoped that, when she was able to get back to her own timeline, she'd be able to bring a few pieces with her. Like the shirt that she had bought because she thought it was hilarious for its irony, even though she was the only one who was aware of its irony. It was a simple white t-shirt with silver block lettering that read _The Future Is Here_ and indeed, it was. She laughed every time she saw it in the mirror.

And then there was the Trouble Tones. She knew, from her moms' stories, that the all-girl singing group would not last long, and before Christmas holidays, they would all be back together as part of the New Directions, but she enjoyed it all the same. To be able to perform in the same group with her parents, without having to share the limelight with her aunts and uncles, except for Mercedes, was a wonderful thing for her. Even if on the first day they had joined she had landed herself in hot water by cheekily saying "Yay, more backup singers for me" This had caused a very immediate, and hurtful, response from her Mami. Which hurt, viscerally. Of course, how could her Mami know that Sugar was her daughter from the future, let alone that her comment was a cheeky joke based on comments she heard growing up from her grown-up Mami, who said she would always be willing to sing back-up for her princesa. But, as the time had gone on, it had gotten much better, and the girls had grown much closer. To the casual observer, they might even be friends – and this despite Sugar's attempts to not grow too close, for reasons of safety and sanity. But the girls had grown closer, and were friends, after a sort, and it was that closeness that led to more slip-ups. Not of the same sort that she had done previously, where she would accidentally say the wrong thing, or let information about the future come out in conversation without thinking – which, thankfully, she was able to cover up with her "Asberger's" excuse now, in case it did; rather, it led to slip ups in that the girls were getting close enough to where they could tell when she was lying, or being evasive, and she could tell that they were getting suspicious. She didn't know what they did, or didn't, know but she was worried that they would find out – and knowing how smart both her moms were, it was only a matter of time. Which led to the predicament she was currently mentally berating herself for getting into.

They were at Trouble Tones rehearsal getting ready for the Mash-Off with the New Directions, and then Sectionals, and they had just finished rehearsing "Someone Like You" and were taking a break, using the time to discuss costumes. Brittany was not particularly pleased with the costumes.

'I really don't like the costumes we have right now, San, do you think Miss Cocoran will re-consider using different costumes?' 'Whats wrong with the costumes, B?'

'I dunno, its hard to describe, they're just kind of...meargh,' she said, using sound-effects instead of words describe the current costumes.

'But Britt, we don't have time to redesign the costumes. I know they may be a bit off your style, they're off mine, too. They're either too fru-fru and poofy, or else not feminine enough, I get it, but what can we do?'

'Yeah, I know San, but that's just it...it wouldn't take much, I mean just a little bit of tsssss,' she said, changing her voice tone and using another sound-effect to describe her thought, 'and then a bit more vjj vjj vjj, tak tak tak,' she added, using two more sound-effects which she clearly assumed to be understood, before shrugging her shoulders.

'I know, Babe, I know,' Santana said slowly, considering what her girlfriend was saying, obviously able to understand Brittany perfectly. 'I just dont know if its do-able on such a short time frame'

'I agree with Brittany,' Sugar said, forgetting momentarily that Brittany and her antics were supposed to be strange and she was supposed to pretend to not understand her. But after all, she was her mother, she grew up with her quirky eccentricities. Of course she understood her. 'They are definitely too reargh,' she added, using her own, different, sound-effect to make her point.

'Wait, hold up,' Mercedes said. 'You two can understand what Brittany is talking about when she uses those weird sounds instead of words?'

'Well, of course I can,' Santana bit back. 'I've known Brittany since we were seven years old. She's always been different and communicated in a way some find to be difficult and different...I call it Brittany-ese, and I've been speaking it with her since we were kids,' Santana explained. 'But you need to watch your tone if you don't want me to go all Lima Heights on your ass for making Brittany feel bad about how she expresses herself,' she added to Mercedes, eyes narrowing dangerously. '

What about you, Sugar?'

'What about me what?' Sugar asked, taken aback, and worried when she realised what she'd done.

'How can you understand what Brittany said, because only half of what just came out of her mouth are actual words'

'Oh, uh...um...,' Sugar stammered, panicking, whilst she stalled to think of an answer. 'My Mom is...uh...an artist, and really eccentric...so she sort of thinks and communicates in pictures and sound-effects,' she eventually managed to string together. 'So you could say I've had a lot of practice, kind of like Santana'

She noticed out of the corner of her eye, both Brittany and Santana's eyebrows arch curiously at that comment, but before any more could be said by any of the girls, Shelley Cocoran called an end to the rest and said they had to get back to work.

A few days later, Santana sat at a table in the far back corner of the library doing Chemistry homework. Brittany had gone off a few minutes previously in search of a book, but her notebooks were spread out opposite Santana on the opposite side of the table. Ever since they had come out and were officially together, Brittany had started to care more about her grades; of course she was extremely brilliant overall, but most subjects taught at McKinley just didn't interest her, and she didn't care about any grades – and she still didn't, not really – but she had been focusing more on doing what she had to do to raise her marks so that she and Santana could graduate together and get into the same college and go to college together. She didn't want to have any excuses to make the start of them building their lives together any harder than it had to be, which meant that she was doing everything in her power to avoid them having to do any kind of long-distance thing if at all possible.

Santana was, of course, secretly happy about this. She of course knew – she was possibly the only person in the entire town who really knew – how much of a genius Brittany was, but she was always a bit worried about whether her girlfriend would be able knuckle down and bite the bullet long enough to do what she needed to do in order to graduate. She knew that most of it bored her girlfriend to tears, or she wasn't interested, or she found other, more interesting projects to focus her energy on (like a time machine!) and that, she knew, would be good in the future, but for now, she was glad that her girlfriend was buckling down enough to get her grades up so they could both go to the same college. Especially now that they had started living together after what happened over the summer; they had both adapted remarkably quickly to living together, and having the simple, mundane domesticity to their relationship; it made them feel like they were really starting to build something real – a lifetime together – and what they had was serious and real. They both loved it, and they both knew they would be devastated if they couldn't continue living together during college. So they had taken to studying and doing their homework together in the library during their free periods, rather than sneaking off to Santana's car or under the bleachers for sweet lady-kisses. They were both sad about that, at first, because they couldn't keep their hands off each other, but they were comforted by the fact that even if they couldn't sneak off during free periods to get their mack on any more, they lived together so when they got home they had the rest of the day and a big empty house to do with as they saw fit.

Santana peeked over her notes at Brittany's to see which subjects she was working on: she had already finished her Chemistry and maths, because it was so much easier for her than anyone, even Santana, had suspected, and she was now making a dent on her English homework, and she was almost done. Santana noticed that all of her papers were decorated in the margins with doodles of little hearts with _S+B_ inside, written in various sizes and colours, and it still made her heart do a dance, every time she saw it; she didn't think she would ever get used to the fact that they were together, out and proud, and they didn't have to hide anymore, or the fact that they were honestly, truly in love with each other, and already looking to the future to build a life together. She didn't think she'd ever get used to it, or take it for granted, and she hoped she never did. She hoped that she would always have the butterflies in her stomach feeling she got when Brittany looked at her the way she did, or when she saw the obvious displays of love and affection – both public and private – that Brittany had for her, or any of the other myriads of ways she made her feel loved and accepted. And those crayon heart doodles in the margin of the page were just one of many. Just as she was beginning to drift away into her own little lovesick daydream land, she was shaken out of her reverie by Brittany returning and dropping a short stack of books onto the table they shared. Most of the books appeared to be rather boring books she was using for her English essay, but the one on top was more interesting. She knew it was interesting because Brittany practically shoved it under Santana's nose and whispered excitedly

'Santana, look! Look what I found!'

'_Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_?'

'Yes, and no. Its not actually _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. _I found this book a year or so ago when I first started my time machine idea, and when I took it out, I changed the cover sleeve so that anyone else trying to use it wouldn't be able to, that way I could get my time machine built first, obviously,' she said, matter-of-factly.

Santana nodded in confused agreement

'I mean, the only other people who might snoop around are Jacob Ben-Israel, and Mike Chang, and I wouldn't mind Mike Chang knowing because he's our friend, and my brother-from-another-mother, but still, I couldn't risk it,' she said, and Santana nodded knowingly in agreement.

'So, its a time travel book?'

'Basically. But that's not the most interesting part,' she said, taking off the decoy cover jacket. 'I never really paid attention to the author or any of that other beginning stuff before – until right now, really – but today for some reason, I did, and there's something you need to see,' she said, shoving the book with its proper cover back into Santana's face.

'_Time Travel for Fifteen Year Olds, including ten full-colour diagrams_,' Santana read the title. 'So?'

'Not the title, San'

'By Sugar Elizabeth Pierce-Lopez,' She read outloud. 'Wait...What?'

'Sugar. Elizabeth. Pierce-Lopez,' Brittany repeated, clearly annunciating each word, as if she was afraid if she didn't, the words would change. Santana's eyebrows disappeared nearly to her hairline in surprise. 'But that's not all...look at this,' Brittany said, flipping a few pages until she reached the dedication. '"To the two best Moms a girl could ever have: It worked, and I love you both so much. Your Princesa." And then there's the copyright date...'

'You checked the copyright date?'

'Of course, it seemed too weird, like some kind of prank or something, otherwise. Why, wouldn't you?'

'Of course I would'

'But you don't think I would think to do that, San?'

'What? No, no...Britt, Baby, that's not what I meant at all,' Santana said quickly, seeing – and hating – the frown that had begun to cross her beautiful girlfriend's face. 'Please, I was just trying to get into your thought process. That's all. What's the date?'

In answer, Brittany thrust the book under Santana's nose, after flipping to the appropriate page.

'You tell me.'

'Copyright...2041...wait...what?!'

'I know, its crazy, right?'

'Its not just crazy, its impossible...its got to be some kind of prank or something'

'Who would spend the energy it would take to do this to do that kind of thing, San? That's ridiculous. Besides, its too good...too real. The quality, everything, its perfect. I...think...I think its real San'

'Brittany, you're trying to tell me that a book that won't be written for 29 years somehow found its way into our school library? That's absolutely insane' '

Its no more insane than thinking its a prank. I mean who would do something like that? What motive do they have? How would they even go about doing it?'

'Well, I mean, Sugar's a pretty good prime example for suspect number one...'

'Santana, she's a tiny 15 year old. She doesn't have the resources, or from what I can tell, the motive or the means, to pull something like this off...its crazy, but I think maybe I must have gotten the time machine to work, and put it here, or something, because I can't think of any other explanation'

'Brittany its impossible! It won't even be written for 29 years! Do you understand how crazy that sounds?'

'Yes, Santana, I am aware. Are you aware of how hurtful you're being?'

'I'm sorry, Britt. Really. I didn't mean it like that, you're a genius, you know that. And you know that I know that. And if anyone can get a handle on the whole time travel thing, it'd be you...but we're still in high school. I mean, its ridiculous...how could...why would...I just...'

'I know its scary and confusing, Santana, but trust me on this, I think its the only logical explanation. It makes the most sense, about everything that we've been wondering about, especially about Sugar...and I think I've gotten a handle on understanding the science and maths, at least, behind the concept for time travel at this point...its completely plausible. It all checks out. I know you don't really understand it, so please, please just take my word on this, for right now, at least. Please?'

'Ok, fine...but still, that leaves the question as to why. If you did travel back in time to plant this book here, in this time...why?'

'I dunno, I guess we'll have to read it and see. But you know what this means about Sugar right?'

'Hmm'

'I was right about her being family, San'

'How do you mean?'

'Haven't you been paying attention? Time travel. This book is written by Sugar Elizabeth _Pierce-Lopez_, and dedicated to her _two moms_. That's us, Santana. We are Sugar's moms. Sugar is our daughter, from the future, and she must have somehow, for some reason travelled back in time. I TOLD you I thought she was family!'

Santana just stared blankly at her girlfriend. It was a lot to process, and it would take her a long time to process all the information she had just been given. Brittany realised that this was probably the best reaction she could have gotten and hoped for, under the circumstances, and took that as a good sign.

'Come on, Honey, you're not going to get any more of that Chemistry homework done today,' she added, packing up both hers and Santana's things. 'I think we should go home and have a nice, relaxing night in. Let's go,' she said, shouldering their bags, and grabbing her still slightly dazed girlfriend up from the table and leading her out from the library to the car park.

They hadn't spoken about the book, or what it meant about Sugar, for nearly month after they had had the original conversation, and for this Santana was glad. She was very glad that, for the moment, Brittany had let it drop. She knew she wouldn't forever, that much was clear, but she was glad that her girlfriend loved and respected her enough to give her some time to come to terms with it, mentally. Becoming a mother was, after all, a monumentally huge moment in any woman's life. But even moreso when the child is fifteen years old, and from the future, and technically not even born yet, and the mother is only eighteen years old herself and still in high school, and had not a single positive example of parent-child relationships growing up, and didn't know the first thing about being a mother to a scared little girl who is clearly in a bit of trouble and could be, quite possibly, stranded in a timeline not her own, and needs the help of her mother who just happens to be barely older than her at this stage in their respective lives. To say that it was a big hurdle to get over, mentally, was an understatement.

Nevertheless, she knew it to be true. She knew it, intellectually, it must be true. Brittany was right that she didn't understand any of the science behind it, not really, anyway, but the way that Brittany explained it, it did make logical sense. In many ways, given the very particular quirks that Sugar possessed, it was the only thing that made logical sense. Add on to that the fact that she knew that when it came to big ideas like this, or anything related to people, Brittany was always right. Always. Intellectually, she knew it was true. And even down deep, in the deepest recesses of her heart, she felt it to. She felt the connection that Brittany did, and had told her about. She had had it even before Brittany had, probably. She had had it, from the very first second she laid eyes on the girl, and it hadn't gone away since. Of course she had lied to Brittany about it, to her shame, and she still had no real understanding why she did, other than she wanted to try to figure out and get a better handle, for herself, what it was and what it meant, first.

But she was no closer to doing that. She grew up hearing from family friends, the tv, books, and all other sorts of outlets, including random older Mexican ladies on the street in her Abuela's neighbourhood, things about "mother's intuition" and "gut feelings" and how a mother will always "just know". At the time, she never asked questions about those things, because, well, she never saw it as information she needed to know, being a closeted lesbian in love with her best friend, and who probably would never have children. But now, all of a sudden, she wished with every bone in her body, that she had asked more questions about these feelings when she was younger and heard about them, maybe it would help her now to decipher what exactly these feelings were. These feelings of powerful, intimate closeness, protectiveness, wanting to make sure the small girl was loved, cared for and happy at all times; the feeling of utter disgust whenever she saw one of the many guys checking her out, like a piece of meat, as she walked the halls of McKinley – worst of all was when it was Artie or that Irish Kid, Rory, which made her skin crawl. The feelings of deep, abiding love; of...kinship, would be a good way to describe it. And feelings that she still had no idea how to describe, but that made the fine, tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand on end whenever the younger girl was in her presence, or she thought about her or even heard her name – almost exactly as Brittany had described. She had to figure this out, she knew, and Brittany would want to talk about this eventually. So, that was why she was here. For the first time since they had all been in Middle School – before they started doing the whole "frenemies" thing and when they were actual, good, friends – Santana Lopez stood before the front door of the house of Quinn Fabray.

She needed advice, and the only person she knew well enough who had been in anything resembling a similar situation whom she could also trust, happened to be Quinn. She nervously rang the doorbell and fidgeted on the spot nervously waiting for somebody to answer the door. Eventually the door opened and Quinn stood, visibly surprised, on the other side of the threshold.

'Santana? What are you doing here?'

'Singing Christmas carols, Fabray, what do you think'

'I don't know what to think, since you haven't come over for almost four years'

'Yeah...sorry about that, Q. I think maybe we got carried away with our whole "Frenemies" situation. Do you think we can bury the hatchet?'

'Who are you, and what have you done with Santana Lopez?'

'Its me, Teen Mom, alright?' Quinn laughed, genuinely, at the situation before her.

'I don't know what brought this on, Santana, or why you couldn't just text me like a normal person,' she added, 'but honestly? I'm glad. I miss our friendship. Come in,' she added hastily, opening the door and moving out the way so Santana could enter.

'Honestly? So did I. I just didn't want to be the first person to say it,' Santana responded as she entered the house and, remembering from when she came over to the Fabray residence frequently with Brittany in toe, removed her shoes, and hugged a shocked Quinn. 'I don't want to seem business like, Q, because I really do miss just being friends and hanging out and shit, but I need some advice and you're the only person I could think of'

Three and a half hours, and lots of explaining and swearing to secrecy later, Quinn, being brought up to speed, spoke.

'So, you're telling me that Sugar Motta is actually yours and Brittany's daughter from the future?'

'That's what Brittany thinks, and I...I think I believe her'

'Santana, I know you love Brittany, and you think she's some kind of genius and all the weird things she says are just her own way of expressing that and stuff, and you think that apparently the sun shines out of her ass, but...Santana, this is something else completely...'

'Quinn, when it comes to anything like this that deals with people – any situation at all, whatsoever – Brittany is always right. She always has been, with the one exception being how her parents would react to her being gay. I dunno what it is, but she's always right, and I...I just, I don't have a reason to doubt her intuition now'

'So you think Sugar is your daughter, from the future, who came back here somehow, for some reason, in a time machine that Brittany is currently building?'

'Yes'

'Santana, are you high?'

'Well, I mean, Britt and I smoke a little weed every once in a while, but that's it,' Santana said. 'And I'm completely sober right now'

'This is completely ridiculous, Santana. I mean how do you, or Brittany, know?'

'Well, I told you about the book, right?' Quinn nodded in the affirmative. 'That convinced Brittany, and it is a pretty compelling piece of evidence. But aside from that, we don't know for certain, of course, because the only other ways to know for certain that I'm aware of is being there when she is born, which if this whole thing is true, won' have happened yet, or to get some kind of genetic tests done, but in order to do that, we'd need a blood sample, and it'd be kind of hard to get a blood sample without raising suspicion, and...'

'And you don't want to do anything weird or freaky until you are as certain as you can be that what you think is true, is, just in case'

'Right. And I mean, other than the book, all I've got is this...feeling. Ya know? And I don't know how to describe it besides like, I feel like I know her – really know her – and that I always have. And that she is...part...of me, and I get this burning desire to make sure she is always taken care of and safe and happy; and when I see that Irish kid or Artie looking at her the way they do it makes my skin crawl, and I get really protective, and whenever I see her, or interact with her, and sometimes when I even just hear her voice or her name the hair on the back of my neck stands on end in a weird way, and I have no idea how to describe it, and its freaking me out,' Santana said.

'Why are you telling me this?'

'Well, cos Brittany told me she had almost the same feelings, and when I was younger I heard a lot of the older Mexican ladies in my Abuela's neighbourhood talking about a "mother's intuition" or how a "mother always knows" and that sort of thing, and since you're the only other person I know who is a mother, who I can trust to talk about this too, I was wondering...'

'Yeah. All the time,' Quinn said, the fact that Santana had said 'other person' when referencing people who were mothers – implying that she was including herself as a mother – did not go unnoticed by the blonde girl. 'Every day, whenever I think about her. I get feelings just like you describe, and more. Like I would do anything – literally anything – to make sure my baby is safe, happy, healthy and protected. But remember, Santana, there is a big difference between being her mother and being her Mom. You need to figure out how you're going to handle it, if she is your daughter'

'What? I'm not going to abandon my daughter'

'I would never suggest that you would. But she seems to be doing fine on her own right now, and the versions of you and Brittany that are her moms, you know, who actually _raised _her, are the moms she will need, and want the most, and be most familiar with. So you need to decide just how close you're going to get to her and in what ways, and most importantly, what would be best for _her_'

'Thanks, Q, for scaring me even more.'

She was, of course, thinking about those very things, and terrified, which was one of the reasons why she and Brittany had yet to talk about it, at all, since that day they had in the library. If Sugar was her daughter, one part, the nurturing, maternal, loving part of her brain, that was stronger than she would have ever thought, blanched at the very idea of doing anything but immediately being the mother that the younger girl needed, having her live with herself and Brittany, and doing the best they could to provide Sugar with the warm home, family life, and love and support she clearly needed, in whatever way they could, before they could find a way to get her back to her proper timeline and proper home and family. But another side of her, seemingly equally strong and loud, was afraid that, as someone who was still a teenager herself, and only barely legal in the eyes of the law herself, and still figuring things out, making mistakes, doing the things that she was sure her older self would be trying to make sure her daughter did not, in fact, do, and the like, thought she would be a terrible mother figure – particularly now, but there was also the debilitating fear that even in the future she was a terrible mother and the only reason Sugar turns out to be as seemingly stable and well-adjusted as she does was because of Brittany; these fears were largely brought on by the fact that she never had a positive parenting example growing up, and given her penchant for messing things up, she was absolutely positive she would mess up on being a parent to Sugar, too. And that was the absolute last thing in the world she wanted, was to mess up, or harm in any way anything about that sweet, perfect angel; she didn't want to do anything that would so much as harm a single hair on her perfect little head. Of course, if she had been paying to her own internal dialogue, she would know that that thought in and of itself was proof enough of both Sugar's parentage, and her own maternal nature. But she wasn't and it didn't. So, her internal struggle regarding this dilemma continued.

'Its what I do, Santana. Someone's gotta keep you honest and on your toes'

'Thanks, Q, I hope we can do this more often,' Santana said, standing up from her chair, and seeing herslef to the front door, left to go home to Brittany. She did not talk with Brittany about whether or not Sugar was her daughter or not, and her misgivings about the situation if it were true, that night, or any night, for over a week. It was a full ten days later, at the end of a very fun, and very fulfilling date night, when, as they lay cuddling together naked after very mindblowing sex, that Brittany breached the topic once more.

'San?'

'Hmm?'

'Have you...have you given any thought to our conversation we had about Sugar?'

Santana sighed heavily, expressing her reservations and misgivings.

'Britt...do we have to do this now? I mean we just had a wonderful night, I was hoping we could just cuddle up together, maybe watch some Sweet Valley High...' she said, teasing her finger along Brittany's ribcage playfully.

'Santana, please,' Brittany said in a voice that was equal parts firm and questioning. 'I don't know why you keep avoiding this topic, San, this is something we need to talk about, and I really don't like that you keep putting it off'

'But why do we have to talk about it now, Britt?'

'Because if we don't, you'll keep putting it off'

'So?'

'Santana, she is our daughter. And she is fifteen years old and somehow time travelled into the past. She needs us.'

'She needs her parents'

'We're her parents'

'We don't know that, B'

'Bullshit, Santana! Stop giving me that bullshit, I know you feel it too! You know she's your daughter just as much as I do! What the hell is wrong with you?!'

Santana knew her words to be true, but that didn't mean she didn't have a laundry list of misgivings and she had no idea how to express them. '

Maybe so, Brittany,' She said, and a smile a mile wide stretched across Brittany's face, as she knew that that was as good as she was going to get, as far as an acceptance, from her girlfriend. She also knew that was all she needed to get.

'But even so, Brittany, we're not her parents. Not yet. We will be, in the future, and I'm excited for that future to happen with you, but we're eighteen years old and still in high school. We aren't the parents she needs...'

'We are, Santana. We're her moms, and she needs us'

'I don't know what you think we're going to be able to do? What we can do for her? I have no idea, but I do know that as it stands right now, we're her future parents, but not her moms – there is a big difference between being her parents and being her moms...,' she was saying when Brittany's face dropped, and hardened into a scowl. Her blonde girlfriend got jerkily out of bed in angry, sharp movements, and began hurriedly putting her clothes back on, before she asked, in a dangerously low voice – a voice which very few people had ever heard, but Santana heard her fair share of many times before; a voice which never meant anything good followed, and which she always hated hearing, because it meant that she had made Brittany very, very angry indeed:

'Where in the _hell_ did you get that idea?'

'Well, I was talking to Quinn, and she told me that...'

'You talked about this to Quinn?!' Brittany yelled, her anger finally bubbling over, and exploding in one of her (thankfully) rare experessions of rage. 'Quinn Fabray?! You are talking about our very intimate, personal, family issues with Quinn fucking Fabray!? Santana what is wrong with you?!'

'Brittany, please, calm down, at least a bit...I needed to talk to somebody about this. Quinn has had a baby, and given it up for adoption, she would know about this kind of stuff better than most people, and I can trust her...who else am I supposed to talk to?'

'ME, SANTANA! ME! You know, your _girlfriend_?! The woman who is someday going to be your _wife_?! You talk to ME, Santana! For fucks sake, Santana, whatever this...' she gestured with her fingers wildly around Santana in a way she always did when she was frustrated, 'is and whatever...issues you have, you talk to me about it! We always talk about everything. With each other. You can always talk to me...I know that you should be able to talk to other people about things, but the fact that you never even tried coming to me, first...that hurts, Santana. A lot. I thought we were done hurting each other?'

She said, close to tears.

'I love you, Santana, and I will always love you and forgive you and be understanding of you, but right now...I'm having a really hard time _liking_ you right now,' she said, grabbing her phone off the nightstand, throwing a spare change of clothes into her handbag, and storming out of the house.

It had been two full days since the fight with Brittany and Santana was feeling terrible. She felt awful about how she acted, and even worse about the fact that her girlfriend had still not returned home. It was the longest they'd gone without being intimate or sleeping in the same bed together since they'd gotten together, and certainly since they started permanently living together. She also knew, of course, that Brittany felt the same as she did, but with the added residual feelings of anger at her, that clearly had not yet fully gone away. Which she understood. She did. She knew that if the shoe was on the other foot, she would have been furious at Brittany as well, and she probably would have reacted worse, to boot. Santana knew that it wasn't really so much that she had talked about their family issues to Quinn – although she did think that must have been part of it, certainly – she knew that Brittany's real anger was the comment she had made, thanks to her conversation with Quinn, about the difference between being her future parents, and being her moms. Which she regretted almost as soon as she had said it, but that was the thing about words: they can be very hurtful, and you can never take them back. That, coupled with the fact that for whatever reason, she didn't feel comfortable talking with her own girlfriend directly about issues about Sugar being their daughter from the future, and her own insecurities related to that, had hurt her greatly, and also made her very angry.

Santana understood that her behaviour had hurt Brittany and that she was still extremely upset and angry, but she wanted her girlfriend back. She had gotten used to sharing her bed with the blonde, and she wanted her back beside her. She knew that she had to apologise, and she had to make an effort to communicate better with her girlfriend about her stances on the issues that caused the argument in the first place, and hopefully, everything would be back to normal, if not better, afterwards. But, she knew, that first she had to apologise.

Brittany had been furious with Santana when she stormed out of the house, as evidenced by the fact that she left the house with only her phone, handbag, and one spare change of clothes. This being the first – and hopefully last – time she and Santana fought in such a way that she felt she had to storm out of the house that they now shared, she hadn't quite thought her exit strategy through completely: the last time they had fought like this, she had't yet come out to her parents, and she hadn't been kicked out of the house, so she had been able to just go to her house and cry and scream in her room until she and Santana had both had a chance to cool off. This time, however, such an option didn't exist, since her parents had kicked her out of the house. After wandering around the immediate vicinity of Santana's house for about ten minutes and deciding that no, she didn't want to go back into the house as she wasn't ready to forgive her girlfriend and didn't want to say anything else to make the fight worse and have one, or both, of them say anything they'd truly regret, she decided that she had better find somewhere to spend the night.

She wound up staying with Mike Chang, with whom she had always been close, despite the sometimes opposite aspects of their personalities; they bonded over things that mattered, like dancing, and dinosaurs and a mutual love of sushi (Even though she thought that was kind of weird because Mike Chang was Chinese, she was happy because she could never get Santana to appreciate sushi). Eventually, by their final, Senior, year, they had become extremely close, and Mike was almost like her "brother-from-another-mother". After she had called him to tell him that she and Santana had had a fight and asked him if she could stay with him for a day or two, he had picked her up immediately, and asked no further questions, which she appreciated. He knew that if Brittany wanted to talk about what was bothering her, she would talk. In the meantime, they spent the past two days devouring as much sushi as they could, watching all the Land Before Time movies, and catching up since they were now in two different glee groups and didn't get to talk or dance together quite as much.

She had been staying with him the past two days, and it had been good, and something that she had needed desperately, because it allowed her time to calm down, relax, and think about what had happened. She was no longer anywhere near as furious with Santana as she had been. She was still a bit hurt, of course, and she wanted to talk over such things with Santana, but the time apart had let her reflect more on the conversation, and now that she wasn't so focused on the hurtful words, she was better able to focus on the tone of what Santana had said and her demeanour whilst she was saying it, and she had come to a very different realisation: Santana wasn't trying to be mean, or hurtful or any such thing like that: quite simply, she was scared. Brittany had known Santana for a very long time, longer than practically anyone except her immediate family, quite possibly, and she knew when Santana was frightened. And the tone of voice and the way her face did not have the kind of colour it usually did, and the amount of stress lines and way her eyes were squinted in a very particular way led Brittany to realise that something – or perhaps, more likely, many somethings – about this situation had Santana absolutely terrified, and what had happened was her way of dealing with it, her coping mechanism. Of course, that didn't mean that it was ok, what she had said, but it made it much more understandable and forgiveable. In fact, by the second day, she had already forgiven her girlfriend. She hadn't gone back home, however, because she still wanted an actual apology from Santana – both for the principle that she had had her feelings hurt and she deserved an apology, but also because she didn't know if Santana had come to terms with what happened yet and wanted to see her home yet.

It was a Monday, and she had expected to see her girlfriend that day at school, and have her apology and be done with it. But she didn't see Santana at school that day: not at their lockers, not in any of their classes, not in the library, the locker rooms, Cheerios practice, or Trouble Tones rehearsal. She literally didn't see her girlfriend a single time the entire day, and she hoped that their fight didn't have a much worse affect than she had thought. However, at the time being, she couldn't quite focus on the problem of her girlfriend because she was sat down during a rest in the Trouble Tones rehearsal, supposedly having a conversation with her daughter from the future and Mercedes, and it wouldn't be good if they found out she wasn't paying attention to their conversation. As she refocused her attention on the conversation, she found they were talking about possible songs for the upcoming Mash-Off with the New Directions.

'I really think we should mix it up, do some nice, peppy, poppy ones like we've been doing, but maybe also something slower, maybe something that was originally meant to be done like, on a piano with a singer or something. I really love those. Those are some of my favourite songs,' Sugar was explaining.

Brittany smiled. Santana would love to know that her daughter had a wider taste and interest in music than just the typical top-40 pop stuff that was the standard fare of most glee clubs. Of course, this didn't surprise Brittany, considering who she was raised by, but the thought still made her smile.

'I really like them too, Sugar, but I don't think its good competition material,' Mercedes countered.

'Sure it is,' Sugar counterred passionately. 'What about that song "Hallelujah"? The one from the Shrek movies? I love that song. Its my favourite song from all of the soundtrack for Shrek 4'

'Shrek 4? You mean Shrek 3,' Mercedes corrected.

'No, no, Shrek 4...you know, the one where they have to go the forests beyond Far, Far Away to rescue Shrek and the Princess' children and...' Sugar started, before dying down halfway through her explanation, her eyes going wide in what could only be described as terror.

'Sug...there's only been 3 Shrek movies, and none of them are about what you described,' Mercedes said, slightly suspiciously.

'Oh, yeah, heh heh, right,' Sugar said, trying to force some laughter from her lungs. 'Asberger's. Sorry. Sometimes I can't tell the difference between things like real movies that I see or books that I read, and the stories I come up with in my head,' she explained lamely.

Brittany, for her part, stayed quiet through the whole of this conversation, her only reaction being the narrowing of her eyes and the cocking of her eyebrows ever so slightly at the appropriate moments, to avoid suspicion of her suspicion. She did not know much about Asberger's Syndrome, to be fair, but she did know that that was not how it affected those who suffered from it, and that was not the symptoms of the disorder. She knew this because so many teachers, doctors, camp counselors, and similar such people in her past had suggested that perhaps she might have it that her parents had had her tested when she was in middle school. The results were negative; she was just a bit different and eccentric who saw the world and thought in a very special, unique way; she wasn't on the autism scale. And then she and Santana had looked up autism and Asberger's Syndrome on the internet because her parents had refused to tell her what it was or what it meant – that was something she swore to herself she and Santana were not going to do with Sugar – and they found out what it meant, what some of the symptoms and such were, and what that meant for her. She had also cried for three days almost non-stop when she found out their teachers had thought she had had it. Regardless, however, she knew that Sugar did not have Asberger's Syndrome, because what she described was not Asberger's Syndrome, and if she did have it, she would not be bandying it about so openly and freely like it was an excuse for anything and everything. This of course meant that her little "Shrek 4" quip was in fact a slip up of information regarding the future, which removed any subconscious, lingering doubts that she might have had about Sugar's origins. Sugar was her and Santana's daughter from the future. She was sure of it. Now, she just had to get Santana to apologise so they could talk and move forward. '

Right, well, regardless, I think it might be better if we did more poppy dance numbers for the competition,' Mercedes concluded.

'What do you think, Brittany?'

They never found out what she thought, because Miss Cocoran called the break to an end and set them back to practice for the remaining hour and a half of rehearsal. At the end of rehearsal, they were all tired, and sweaty, and just wanted to go home, so they didn't bother chatting as they collected their things as they left the room. As she was leaving, she saw Mike and siddled up to him, still happy to have time to spend with him, but slightly sad that she hadn't seen or spoken to Santana at all that day – or at all since the fight. Mike simply smiled at her and said that he had to go pick something up from his locker, which was on the other floor of the building, and asked her to go wait for him and Tina in the choir room, which she agreed, as they headed off in their own directions.

There was a very good reason why Santana hadn't been at school at all that day – she was busy planning and making the arrangements for what she hoped would be the perfect apology gesture. She knew, of course, that Brittany would forgive her even if she just came to her locker that morning with a hand-drawn card and a simple 'I'm sorry', but she wanted something bigger, something better. Something which, she hoped, would show her girlfriend not only how sorry she was, but also how invested she was in this relationship, whatever that meant, even if that meant adjusting to the fact that one of her classmates was actually her own daughter from the future. Of course, that kind of apology and confession was not an easy one to have, at the best of times for the most emotionally open of people, but Santana knew that the current situation was neither of those things, so she had to find a way to say what she needed to say in her own way.

Thanks to her time in glee club, however, she was able to convey her feelings, thoughts, and emotions through song much better than she could through mere words, especially in situations such as these. So, she had – without Brittany's knowledge – enlisted the help of Mike Chang to help her. Mike had been a godsend, actually, keeping Brittany occupied and unsuspicious of what Santana was doing or why she was not in any of her classes the entire day, as well as convincing Mr Shue – though she never found out exactly how – to hold glee rehearsal in the auditorium that day, so that Santana would be free to use the choir room for the setting of her big moment. It had taken a lot of coordination, and been more stressful on both of them than either would have liked or would later admit, but everything was perfectly ready for Brittany when she walked into the choir room.

When Brittany walked into the choir room, she expected to find Tina Cohen-Chang sitting in one of the seats, perhaps fiddling around on the piano, waiting for Mike to get back from his locker so they could all leave together and hang out. What she did not expect to find was her girlfriend Santana, looking very chastened, almost timid, in the middle of the room, which had been filled to bursting with lilies.

'San...what are all these lilies for?'

'Well, what is it you always told me? They're the lesbians of flowers?' Santana said softly as she walked over to her girlfriend, and handed her one of the flowers, before giving her a long hug in which she poured all of her emotions, hoping to convey how sorry she was for the way she had acted just through the hug. Brittany smiled brightly, happy to once again see and touch her girlfriend, and hear her voice.

'San...what are these for...you didn't have to...'

'I did have to, Britt,' Santana countered. 'Maybe I went a bit overboard in quantity, but I did. I behaved terribly and you were right to be angry, and...'

'No, no, San, you don't have to say anything...I know...and I mean, I kind of acted like a bitch too, I mean, I could tell that you were frightened and yet I kept pushing and pushing and I didn't really listen to you, and...' Santana held her hand up in front of Brittany, hoping that she would quieten down so that she could say what she needed to say.

'Britt, please, I had this whole little speech planned out, and if you keep interrupting me, I'm just going to go off script and it won't be as good. Please,' she said, inidcating that she needed Brittany to just be quiet and listen for a few moments whilst she spoke. Brittany indicated that she understood.

'Yes, Brittany, I was terrified of talking about what we were talking about, because I was absolutely terrified of what it meant. And it made me angry that you kept pushing and pushing and wouldn't let me come to terms with it on my own first, especially when you know that for things like this I take longer to get to the same place you are than you do. But I also know that you were coming from a good place, a place of love and acceptance and hope and all those good things that I love about you. As it stands, for a lot of the past month or so since you first brought it up, I've been consciously trying to bury these feelings that I've had probably since the very first moment I saw her. I knew it then, just like you did, but I was – and still am, really – to an extent, absolutely terrified. But talking to Quinn did help me, actually. It helped me sort out that what I'm feeling is real, true feelings. The whole "mother's intuition" that my Abuela and her friends used to talk about when we were younger, do you remember?'

She looked at her girlfriend, and Brittany smiled widely, her blue eyes shining from tears she refused to shed, as she nodded in the affirmative.

'It made me realise that I'm as sure as I'm going to be, short of asking her or getting some kind of blood test, or physically giving birth to her that she is our daughter. But what Quinn said about their being a difference between being her parent and being her mom, that stuck with me, because I know that she's my daughter and all I want for her is what's best for her. I want her to be safe, and happy, and protected and loved, and to give her the best of everything I possibly can, no matter what, and I was worried that having us trying to be her parents, now, when we're barely three years older than she is, and still trying to figure out where we are in life, with no solid life plan, and yeah we have a bit of money because of my parents, but not enough to support a child on, and we're still making those "growing up" mistakes that I'm positive us-in-the-future will want her to avoid at all costs – I was afraid that that was not what would be best for her. The last thing I want to do is hurt her; I don't want to do anything that would harm a single hair on her perfect little head, let alone screw her up in any way, mentally or physically, that would change her into a different person when we-in-her-timeline finally get her back. Ya know? I don't want to screw her up any worse than I'm sure I already have in the future-slash-past, because I have this debilitating fear that I'm going to be a terrible mother because, let's face it, the only parental role models I had growing up were my Abuela and my parents who are completely absentee. I'm just so scared that the only reason she isn't screwed up completely is because of you.' she said, finally taking a breath and pausing her diatribe.

Brittany took this as her opportunity to speak.

'Santana, you are an amazing, beautiful, strong, kind-hearted, protective woman who is more maternal than she could imagine, and you have more kind, maternal instincts than you give yourself credit for. Look at me,' she said, waiting for her girlfriend to make eye contact with her.

'If there was ever any doubt in my mind that you would be anything but an amazing mother, I would not have a child with you. I wouldn't do that to either you or our unborn child – its cruel on everyone involved, and it wouldn't be good for our relationship, either, and I'm telling you something now, but I hope you should know this by now: I'm kind of in love with you, and I wouldn't do anything consciously that would even possibly jeopardise what we have. I mean, c'mon, Santana, we're two women – its not like we can make an "oops baby" by accident. Sugar, whenever she does happen to come into this world – though probably sooner rather than later, based on my calculations – had to have been wanted, and I would never have gone through that process with you if I didn't know, for an absolute, 100 per-cent fact that you would be anything but an amazing mother. And I know that this is more than a little bit weird now, and will only get wierder once we actually confront her about this, and I know that the circumstances aren't ideal, but we'll get through this, we'll adjust and make do as necessary, and I think we'll come out all the stronger for it. I know it, San. Believe me, I wouldn't be saying this if it weren't true. I'm sorry for running out of the house on you like that the other day, I hadn't had a chance to think this through fully, and...'

'Brittany, I'm the one who is supposed to be apologising to you,' Santana said in a mock whine. 'But thank you. You may need to keep reminding me of these things in the coming days, weeks, and years,' she said, laughing playfully.

'But still, I need you to know that I feel awful for how I reacted too, and whilst as you now know there was a reason behind it, you are still my girlfriend, and I should have come to you to discuss these issues with you like a mature adult in a loving, mature, adult relationship, not tried to hide it away and never discuss it, and then going behind your back and talking about our family issues to someone else without even trying to talk about it to you, first. I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?'

Brittany didn't think she could smile wider, but she did as Santana finished her apology. At every mention of 'their family' as if it weren't even a debateable issue any longer, merely a given fact, that she and Santana would end up together, and have a child and become a proper little family together, it made her heart soar and do somersaults and loop-de-loops in her stomach, and she felt like her smile might break her face in two. That was, of course, until she crashed her lips into Santana's for a passionate, emotion-filled kiss that she hoped poured all of her happiness, love, support, happiness and forgiveness into her kiss as she embraced her girlfriend and pulled her tight to her body, and they stood like that, kissing passionately for what felt like hours, but was probably only a series of minutes.

When they pulled away, Brittany spoke, '

Always, Santana. Always and forever. I forgive you. I love you.'

It was now Santana's turn to smile so wide she thought her face would break.

'And I, you. Let's just promise to always be more open with each other and to work on our communication,' she said, with her blonde girlfriend nodding in profound agreement.

'That said, I did prepare something else. Because as you know sometimes its hard for me to tell you exactly how I feel with words, I prepared a...song...that I hope will show you how much I love and care about you, about us, and how committed I am to all of this...to you, to us, to Sugar, to our family, no matter how what,' she said, moving towards the centre of the room and picking up off the piano what Brittany thought looked like a tiny guitar.

'Your ukelele? Santana, you haven't played that in years...what it must've been since...since we tried to form a rock band, right?!'

'Hey, the Free Beer Lady Sex Machines Left Handed Screwdrivers rocked, from what I can remember, Britt,' Santana said, and then cheekily added in what she hoped her girlfriend understood to be a cheeky piss take of all career garage bands everywhere, 'And we can still make it big someday, Babe, I know it'

Luckily, her girlfriend began giggling furiously at her antics, and she knew that she had chosen well for her method of apology.

'Anyway, Britt, I changed the lyrics of this song a bit, just enough to fit our situation better, and I hope it explains to you how I feel about us, and our family, and everything,' she said, trailing off, not being able to effectively finishing expressing her thought, so she decided to just start playing instead.

She began to play the iconic introduction to Kenny Loggins' famous ballad, _Danny's Song_ on the ukelele, and eventually started to sing,

'_People smile and tell me I'm the lucky one / and though we've just begun / I think I'm gonna have a daughter / She is gonna be like she and me and free as a dove / conceived in love / Sun's gonna shine above / and even though, we ain't got money / I'm sooooo in love with ya honey, and everything's gonna be alright … _'

Despite the sometimes awkward attempts to fit word changes where they didn't fit in to the rhyming scheme for the sake of personalisation, such as replacing the original 'son' with 'daughter', Santana was pleased with the final project of her song, and was very pleased with the results, since as soon as she finished the song, Brittany practically threw herself at her, and once again kissed she soundly and passionately for many long minutes. When they broke away, Brittany spoke again,

'Santana Maria Lopez, I love you and I know that between the two of us, Sugar must be one lucky girl to have to such great moms. Can we be done fighting now, please?'

To this question, Santana readily agreed.

'I do want to wait, just a little while longer, though, before we talk to Sugar about this, though,' Santana said, after they broke apart again of a few more minutes of passionate kissing – after all they had to make up for their time spent apart somehow – when Brittany began to make the funny face she made when she was starting to get disappointed or anxious at Santana, she cut that off by immediately nipping whatever thoughts might be going on in her head in the bud.

'Its nothing like that, Babe, don't worry. Its just...it is a big – major, huge – step, and I want to have a little bit of time to get myself mentally prepared for it, ya know? To get into a good head space? And also, I want to wait until we can find the right time for confronting this daughter of ours about what we in fact know about her. I mean, this is very, shall we say, sensistive, information and we have to treat lightly, ya know? We also have to figure out how we want to deal with this in regards to school, and everything else, ya know?'

Santana said, presenting her very logical reasoning behind her reasoning to wait a little while longer, and whilst Brittany was a bit disappointed, as she wanted to go to her daughter immediately to try and be the mother to her that she knew she needs, she also knew that Santana made a lot of logical sense, and eventually, after some thought and discussion on her own part, she agreed.

The Past: November, 2012; roughly a week after Sugar's "slushie incident"

The week after the 'slushie incident' as she had taken to call it in her head, had been a difficult one for Sugar. After the incident which, on further reflection, she realised that she had slipped up not once, not twice, but three times in one conversation with her Mami, she knew that she had to keep her distance. Not that she wanted to, because if there was one thing she wanted more than anything it was to get closer to her mothers, in order to bring some semblance of normalcy to her crazy, mixed up world that was her life now that she had travelled back in time. But she couldn't risk it. Not at all. She was getting too close and too comfortable with them, and they were starting to get to know her too well and were starting to get curious. And what was more, they were starting to know her well enough that they could tell when she was lying or being evasive. It was almost – not anywhere near as much as she really wanted, but almost, all the same – as if they were a weird, alternate universe version of their own little family that she knew and loved back in her own, proper, timeline. But this was not good. Not good at all. As much as this was the only thing she wanted more than anything else in this mixed up timeline, she couldn't afford it. What happened if she slipped up too much, and said something she shouldn't, and then next thing she knew, her entire lifetime and history would be irrevocably changed. She couldn't risk it, and so she knew she had to try her very best to make herself as scarce, incognito, and unavailable as possible. Of course, this was a lot harder to do, now that she was involved with the Trouble Tones (and future glee club/New Directions, as she knew they would be re-combined after Sectionals), and was making friends and starting to become involved in things.

Plus, there was the little fact that no matter where she was, or what she did, she was somehow always in close proximity to one, or both, of her mothers, who for whatever curious reason, always seemed to be watching her, extremely closely, with a very strange look on their faces. It was a look she had never seen on either of their faces – that she could remember, anyway – in her timeline, and so she could not attach it to any of the known emotions she had known either of her mothers to possess or show her at any point in her fifteen years of life. And it had her on edge, and in a near constant state of off-guard confusion. It had gotten so bad, that by that Friday, a day which she normally dreaded as it meant two and a half days of terrible loneliness, alone by herself in the run-down motel she was living in off route 8, she was actually looking forward to the weekend this week, as it meant that she could have some time alone, to think, without the strange look and curious, almost prying, stares of her mothers or anyone else and it would give her time to come up with a plan.

These were the thoughts that were running through her mind as she was clearing things out of her locker and chucking them in her backpack, including her history, English, and chemistry textbooks so she could finish the remaining homework she hadn't finished in study hall or her free period, over the weekend when she was startled by a feminine voice clearing her throat next to her.

'Oh, I'm sorry, did I startle you, Sugar Elizabeth?'

'No, no, its fine, I'm just getting my books for the weekend, Mami, I...' She said, recognising the voice, tone, and words subconsciously and immediately responding before her brain had caught up enough to thingk through what had been said to her, and how she had responded.

When she did, her eyes went wide in terror and she immediately spun on her heel, to become face to face with both of her mothers, who were grinning madly, like the cat that ate the cream.

'Wait, no. I mean...did I just...?'

'I'm afraid you did, Mija,' Santana replied, smiling indulgently at her daughter. _Her daughter_. It was official now. Her daughter had finally officially confirmed her identity. She had a daughter and a life partner and they were a family. A strange little family, at the moment, to be sure, but a family all the same.

'Looks like the cat's out of the bag, now, Sugar Bean,' Brittany added, smiling in an equally broad and indulgent way, before giving in to temptation and grabbing her daughter into a bone-crushing hug, which Santana soon joined, not caring who, of the people still left in the school an hour after school was dismissed on a Friday (which was very few people, only those in clubs which met after school on Fridays), saw them. Sugar sighed. She was happy that this happened, she really was, but she was still a little afraid of what this would mean for the future.

'But...but...I...' she stammered, unable to form coherent sentences, fighting back tears of both joy and fear, and angry that one or two fell loose despite her best efforts.

'Yes, you did try very hard, and you were very good, I think, of hiding your identity overall,' Brittany said. 'Even if you did have a few slip ups here and there, you overall did a very good job. We are so very proud of you, Princesa, and you should be of yourself, too. But you forgot just one thing,' she continued as she wiped the stray tears out of her daughter's eyes.

'The fact that whilst this version of us are younger than the versions of us you are more familiar with, we are still older and smarter and more experienced than you,' Santana began again, before continuing with a phrase that she was sure her older self would be using quite often in the future when disciplining the teenaged Sugar, 'and whatever you think you might have thought of as original in order to fool us, we've already been there, done that, and got the T-shirt to prove it,' she finished, her eyes laughing before planting a brief kiss on her daughter's forehead, taking advantage of the empty corridors and lack of prying eyes.

'Come on, Mija. It looks like somebody's hungry,' she said motioning with her head to Brittany, before continuing, 'and I think you have a lot of explaining to do. I think this calls for a family expedition to waffle house. And whilst we're eating our waffles, you can tell us everything' she said, placing herself in between her two favourite girls, her arms around the shoulders of each, as she steered them all towards the doors to the main car park, and her car.

**AN2: Well, there you have it ladies and germs, the Big Reveal. I was really excited to get to this part in the story, because now the 'real' story can begin, I think. The original idea of this story was 'what would happen if Sugar time travelled at 15 and was stranded for an undetermined amount of time in her parent's timeline?' and an experiment to see how these characters would react, etc, if/how they would bond as a family and the kind of sort of normal, domestic family activities they would have to do that would automatically become hilarious because of the new, unthought of before situation of having a daughter from the future involved. I hope to soon be able to get to those parts of the story to have antics and hijinks and all sorts of the sort come about, and hopefully, hilarity will ensue. Anyway, now you understand why this chapter was so long, I hope it was worth it. R&R if you liked it (and even if you didn't), and if you like, leave some ideas for what you think might be some funny mommy-daughter adventures for our favourite girls to have. **


	5. Chapter 5: All in the Family

**AN: Ok, so another chapter. Hooray, I think. Obviously, by now you lot should know my standard disclaimers. I don't own anything. Not making any money off this (though I should since I clearly write Brittana better than the writers on the actual show who care more about making it the 'Rachel Berry and Friends' show than focusing on the actually interesting characters, but I digress). English is not my native language, so any mistakes there, please let me know but be gentle. Ok, um, I' relatively happy with this chapter though I sort of struggled with how to approach it, its basically a big, giant 'lots of questions answered' type chapter. I was originally going to bring it up through the Mash-Off and Sectionals, but I decided it would be just too long if I did that, and it didn't flow as artistically as I had hoped. The ending is kind of random, but I think its the best I could do given the situation. Also note: obviously at this point this story is completely AU if you haven't noticed already so I will be changing a lot of things from the show timeline, etc to fit the story, etc etc. Obviously. Uh...I hope you like it. I'm going to be very busy over the next few weeks/coming months (my school is starting up again and I have to get back to work on my research, etc) but I'm hoping to still write at least on the weekends and hopefully I'll get a few more chapters up before I get too busy to update regularly at all. Enjoy and Happy Reading! **

The Past: Immediately after confronting Sugar

'So...' Santana said, as they sat down to their booth at the Waffle House and waited for their waitress to arrive. The Waffle House was one of those old-timey Americana type places, which was staffed by only a few grizzled, old, middle-aged, loud-mouthed waitresses and even fewer, equally loud-mouthed and middle-aged line cooks. The food was greasy and delicious and the service was terrible in only the best sort of ways, which was why it was one of those places that only did well on interstate highways in these modern times. But they also served the best waffles Santana and Brittany ever had, which was why for such a momentous meal the newly-minted Pierce-Lopez family had driven almost 30 minutes outside Lima on the interstate to get there. It was awkward, of course, to get the conversation started. Neither Santana nor Brittany were under any illusions that it wouldn't be, but just getting the conversation started seemed like it was going to be the hardest and most awkward part. However, Santana was feeling distinctly less awkward than she had otherwise expected, now that she had accepted the facts of the situation, her new little family seemed more natural than anything. For her, the awkward parts were to come in terms of how and in what ways she and Brittany were going to fill the roles of parents normally filled by their older selves. Of course they were going to step in and be the parents the girl needed; they were her parents, after all, even if she wouldn't technically be born for a few years. After a long discussion the two girlfriends had had with each other over the preceeding week before they confronted their now-confirmed-daughter, they had addressed each and every fear and worry one, or both, had had towards being Sugar's mommies. They knew that they would have a steep learning curve ahead of them, and that things would be very awkward and strange, certainly, at least at first, but that they were both willing to do that and so much more to help their baby girl. The remaining awkwardness, as far as Santana and Brittany were concerned, now came from the fact that they were going to have to find, and tread, a very fine line in how much they parented the girl. They couldn't baby her too much, because after all, she was a teenager. And they would have her again, for real, as an actual baby soon enough, so they didn't need to overcompensate and baby the Sugar they had at the moment, even though Santana had a hunch that the current, teenaged Sugar was still babied somewhat in her own timeline and was for sure a bit of a Mommy's Girl, and so they would have to find a fine balance between too much and not enough. But they couldn't just leave her to own devices, either, as she was, after all, only just turned fifteen. However, despite the awkwardness that came with these sorts of things, the girls decided to trust their intuitions, and hope for the best, and despite it all, Santana was surprised at overall, how calm and contented with the situation she had become in such a short period of time. She was interruped from her musings by the middle aged, heavily greying and plump waitress, whose name-tag declared her name to be "Ida" approaching their table and asking for drink orders.

After three coffees were ordered, she left the three younger girls alone to fetch the drinks and do god knows what else.

'Do we let you drink coffee in your timeline?' Brittany asked Sugar.

'Well...uhm...you've never told me I can't have it,' Sugar began lamely.

'But...?' Santana prompted.

'But you've never let me order it in restaurants before, either. I've actually never had coffee before,' she finished lamely.

Brittany, who was slightly closer to their daughter, grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

'Don't be embarassed, Sugar,' she said. 'Its nothing to be ashamed of. Your mother and I hadn't had coffee until we were around your age, maybe a little older, too. And that's why its fine, and we'll allow it, this time, because you're curious and you've never had it before, but you need to know that just because this is new, and a bit awkward, and we're much younger than the versions of you that you're more familiar with doesn't mean that we're going to just let you do whatever you want. We want what's best for you which is why we're still going to have similar kinds of rules and expectations of you that the us in the future will. Understand?'

The ease with which Brittany adopted her motherly role amazed Santana, and she smiled broadly at her girlfriend. She just hoped that she would take to her motherly role half as well as her girlfriend had.

'Yes, Ma'am,' Sugar said in a voice that Santana knew she would hear a lot in her future. It was the voice of someone who had just been reproached for their behaviour.

'Good. Now, its okay, Sugar Bean. I'm not angry or upset, you're not in trouble. In fact, I'm kind of curious to see how you react to your first taste of coffee,' Brittany said, her voice slightly going into a teasing sing-song towards the end of her statement as she smirked at Santana, remembering their first taste of coffee. 'I just need you to understand. Okay?'

Sugar nodded her understanding and a wan smile crept across her previously chastised face.

'So, getting back to what I hope your Mami was trying to get to before we ordered our drinks,' she said calmly, 'was...perhaps its best to start from the beginning. How did all this happen in the first place?'

'What do you mean? Do you mean, like...how did I get _here_, like, the past?'

Santana and Brittany simply nodded in the affirmative.

'It was on accident,' Sugar said, averting her eyes momentarily. 'I was sitting in your old car, Mommy...err, Brittany...err...'

'Sugar, this situation must be confusing and scary and frustrating for you in ways that we can only imagine. And even though yes, technically, you haven't been born yet, you are our daughter and we are your mothers, so please, call us by whatever terms make you the most comfortable. It might take a bit getting used to, and it might get a bit complicated at school, so we might have to think up what's appropriate for school and stuff, but whatever makes you comfortable and feel a little bit less awkward and more at home that's what we want,' Brittany said, smiling, as she squeezed Sugar's hand gently in support. Santana, too, was nodding her head in agreement to reassure her daughter. Sugar beamed, her smile reaching clear across her face almost to her eyes.

'Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou,' she began to say, so fast and so forcefully that her words seemed to run together, as she quickly grabbed each of her mothers in turn for a hug before taking a breath again and speaking.

'Well, _Mommy_,' she said, putting emphasis on the term she used for Brittany, 'I was sitting in your old car – well, I guess it isn't old to you now, but for me its old, since its even older than you are...'

'Gee, thanks'

'You know what I meant!'

'Still'

'Anyway, I was sitting in the car, and I wanted to listen to the radio, and I tried to turn it on, but...'

'Hold up,' Santana said for the first time during this exchange. 'You're only fifteen. What were you doing sitting in the driver's seat of your mother's car? You weren't joyriding, were you?'

'No! No, it wasn't anything like that, Mami,' Sugar said with as much urgency as she could whilst still keeping her voice to an appropriately quiet level. 'It actually never left the garage. But you and Mommy were in Ohio – well, here, to be specific – for the funeral, and...'

'Whose funeral? Or can't you tell us?'

'I can tell you. I can tell you most things. Its not like knowing will change the course of events or anything, right Mommy?'

Brittany nodded in agreement of her daughter's understanding of time travel.

'It was Grandpa's funeral, and so you and Mommy were here to help with the arrangements,' she began before Santana cut her off once more.

'So, when you're fifteen, my Dad dies?'

'No, Abuelo y Abuela are fine, Mami. Grandpa David died.'

Santana and Brittany share a meaningful look over their daughter's – admittedly short – head. They realise from her admission that at some point in the future the relationship that is currently non-existant between Brittany and her parents, because they kicked her out of the house because of her sexuality, will at some point be fixed enough to the point that he has a relationship with their daughter, and that gave them both a boost of happiness. However, after only the briefest of silent discussions, they decided then and there that they would not inform their daughter of the current state of relations between Brittany and her parents, for fear that it might upset her – after all, they didn't know what their older selves had or hadn't told their daughter about what had happened back here in the dark ages. They refused to be the ones to take her innocence from her. After all, that was not what parents were meant to do.

'Oh...Okay,' Santana said, trying to bring the conversation back on track. 'So your Grandpa David died and your Mommy and I were, well, here, taking care of the funeral arrangements...why weren't you with us?'

'Honestly, I don't know. I told you both that I had exams and I needed to study and was okay to stay on my own, but I kind of secretly wanted you to put your foot down and make me come with you, cos it was my birthday and I didn't want to be alone...but you didn't. But I didn't complain because I'm a pretty good student as it is – well, on the good side of average, anyway, I usually get Bs,' she said, starting to ramble and both of her mothers beamed in pride at her good marks. 'But I wanted to impress you guys with my exam results so I wanted to spent more time studying, so...'

'Wait, impress us? Why would you feel you need to impress us? Are we super strict?'

'No, not at all. You definitely have certain expectations of me and I have certainly been in trouble my fair share of times, but you aren't strict. Not usually, anyway,' Sugar said brightly. 'Of course, I'll deny ever saying that when I get back to my timeline.' she added cheekily, which made all three of the girls laugh.

'Then why would you feel you need to impress us?'

'Its just that you're both just so smart and have such good jobs and I want you to be proud of me, and I thought getting really good marks on my exam and getting into the best uni I can would be a way to do that,' Sugar replied, her voice revealing her insecurities.

'Sugar...can I ask...what is it we do?'

'Well, Mami, you teach Spanish at my school, actually,' Sugar stated, laughing. 'But you're like, seriously, the best teacher at the school. Everyone loves you. You're all my friends' favourite teacher, and everyone loves you, even the jocks'

'I teach high school?'

'Yeah, high school Spanish,' Sugar said brightly, nodding.

'But...high school?'

'Yeah, you're seriously one of the best teachers at the school, too, like I said everyone loves you'

'Do you take my classes?'

'No, I can't...I mean, its kind of against school policy or something'

'But don't you have to take some kind of foreign language to graduate...or for college applications...,' Santana asked, rambling, her brain – or more accurately, her maternal instincts – moving a mile a minute, faster than her mouth. Brittany smiled at the concern Santana was already showing for their daughter and her future despite the strangeness of the given situation. If there was ever any doubt that they were a family, it had long since evaporated.

'Yeah, I think so, but I mean, I wouldn't learn anything in your class. I mean, you raised me bilingual since I could talk, Mami. I mean, you've heard me speak Spanish...you know I can speak it with the same kind of fluency you can,' Sugar said. Continuing, she added, 'I take French instead. The teacher isn't as fun or as interesting as I hear your classes are, but the trade-off is whilst I don't get to take classes from you, I do get to have you as my Mami, so I think its a fair trade off.'

It took everything she could for Brittany and Santana to not both audibly 'aww' at their daughter's statement. It certainly turned both of their hearts to mush. Neither Brittany nor Santana knew whether this was simply an honest, heartfelt confession from their daughter-from-the-future due to the emotional nature of the conversation and how lonely she must have been, or whether this was a teenaged daughter's practiced way of 'buttering up' her parents. They hadn't been parents long enough to tell, and frankly, neither of them much cared at the moment, their hearts were putty in her hands at that moment, regardless. The fact that this was not a conversation in which she was asking for anything – and therefore didn't need to butter them up – made them believe it was the former, rather than the later, but they hadn't the parenting experience yet to know for sure.

'You're not just a high school Spanish teacher, though,' she added. 'You used to be some kind of super big-time famous civil rights lawyer, or something,' she continued. 'I think you technically still are, and you take like two or three cases a year you think are really important, or interesting or deserving or whatever, but you haven't been a full-time lawyer in a long time. I guess that when you were still pregnant with me you won like some monumentally important case, and so now the firm you work for basically lets you take whatever, and however many, cases you want, because I guess you threatened to quit because working for them was taking away from time with me and Mommy. I'm not really sure on the details,' she explained as best she could, based on what she knew, remembered, or had been told about her Mami's career. 'And even if I did, I'm not sure I should tell you more than the basics, anyway, because we don't know what you will or won't remember when all this is over and I'm back in my timeline, and you need to be able live your lives like everyone else, not basing your life decision based on what I tell you.' She chuckled, smiling brightly in a way that was contagious and both her mothers readily joined in.

'And Mommy,' she said, speaking to Brittany, 'I'm not really sure what you do. I know you're like, some kind of big-time scientist, and you work for the university, but beyond that I'm not really sure what you do. I know you teach classes, and do some kind of research, but beyond that I don't know,' she said. 'But I do know that you both do still perform, sometimes,' she added, continuing, 'Its mostly local community theatre stuff, but Mommy sometimes gets asked to do choreography for shows that Aunt Rachel or Uncle Mike or Uncle Kurt are in. And I know that you all love it, but I don't think you miss not being famous performers, and I'm glad because I think our family and our life is pretty great,' she finished, smiling timidly.

'Sugar...honey...mi Princesa,' Santana began, her voice laced with motherly sympathy, 'you do know that you don't have to impress us, right? We love you, no matter what. You are our daughter, and we love you, and we will be proud of you, no matter what you do,' she said, scootching closer to her daughter in the seat so that she could plant a kiss on her daughter's forehead. 'Of course, we want and expect you to try your best, no matter what, and we want you to succeed, but...you don't have to try to impress us with high marks on exams or getting into the best uni. And if I, or your mother, in either our current or future selves gave you that impression, we are so, so, so sorry. You are our baby girl, and we will always love you. No matter what. That's part of what being a family is all about,' she said, planting another kiss on her daughter's forehead for good measure before her daughter replied.

'Thanks, Mami. I do know, but...I still wanted to anyway. So I stayed home, and I was feeling kind of lonely and so I went into the car...I don't really know why, so don't ask, I still have no idea, and I thought maybe listening to some music on the radio would help me feel better, so I tried to turn on the radio, but...instead of being the radio in a regular car, it was apparently the switch for a time machine. I don't know what exactly I did, but whatever I did, I used Mommy's time machine to time travel to here. It was an accident, I swear, you have to believe me!'

'We believe you, we believe you!' Brittany said, emphatically, giving her daughter a tight hug. 'And I promise we will get you back to your proper timeline, no matter what. Its just a matter of figuring out how. In the meantime, there's nothing a little mommies-Sugar time can't solve, right?' She added hopefully, grabbing her daughter into a brief but warm sidehug.

They were interrupted by the waitress who had finally returned with their coffees, and had come to take their food order. After three Belgian waffles with maple syrup had been ordered, Sugar reached for the cream and sugar which had been placed on the table in front of the three girls by their waitress.

'Wait, hold on, Sugar,' Brittany said. 'Try it without all that stuff first,' she said seriously. This was partially because she wanted to see her daughter's reaction to black coffee, and partly because she was starting to enjoy, on occasion, black coffee herself. Granted, she still loved those wacky flavoured and sweetened concoctions they made at Starbucks, but when it came to just plain coffee, she was finding now that she preferred her coffee black.

Sugar took a tentative sip of the black coffee and pulled a face.

'Oh, that is horrible! How can anyone drink that?' she cried.

'Don't worry, Sugar,' Santana said, putting down the cream and sugar she was using to doctor her own coffee the way she liked it in front of her daughter. 'Your mother is one of those weirdos who like their coffee black, no sugar. Except, apparently, at Starbucks,' she said, offering a teasing glance at her girlfriend, to which her girlfriend stuck out her tongue at her in response. 'I, however, like my coffee with lots of cream and sugar. It makes it nice and sweet and blonde...just like your mother,' she said, smirking slightly at her daughter and smiling at her future-wife.

'Aw, Babe,' Brittany said in response, leaning across the table to kiss her girlfriend briefly on the lips.

When they pulled away, Brittany looked briefly down at her daughter and immediately registered concern on her smiling face.

'We..._do_ do that in front of you, in your timeline...right?'

'What, kiss?'

'Yeah'

'Oh yeah. All the time,' Sugar said, and the broad, happy smiles on the faces of both her mothers did not go unnoticed – after all, they were large and bright enough to light up the entire restaurant. 'That, and more'

'What do you mean, more?'

'Well, let's just put it this way. As much as I love seeing you kiss and seeing that you are still so much in love with each other in my timeline as you are now – maybe even moreso – I shouldn't have to walk in on you making out with each other and you shouldn't do it when my friends are around, even if you do do it just to embarrass me in front of my friends'

'Why would we embarrass you, Sugar?' Brittany asked carefully, slightly worried at Santana's reaction, depending on what the answer might be.

'Well, cos you're my parents. And nobody wants to think of their parents like..._that_. Duh. Gross.'

Santana let out a hearty bark of laughter as a response to her daughter's answer. She figured that was probably the reason but to hear her actually say it was still something else entirely. Brittany joined in the laughter, and was soon followed by Sugar herself. Once the laughter had finally died down and they had caught their breath and otherwise recovered from laughing so hard, Santana replied,

'Well, mija, I think that is something that you're just going to have to get used to. Cos I'm never going to stop being crazy in love with your Mommy, and that's the sort of thing that is just going to happen. A lot. And just cos we're moms doesn't mean we have to stop being ourselves, right babe?' Brittany could only nod in agreement and smile broadly, as she was too choked up by the situation unfolding in front of her to do anything else.

'Yeah, that's what you say in my timeline too, when I complain about you guys making out on the couch when my friends come over'

'Well, then you should be used to it by now, shouldn't you, Sugar Bean?' Brittany added, before smirking and kissing her daughter's forehead ever so briefly.

'I take it – and _please_ tell me I'm right – that this means that we don't wear mom clothes or drive a minivan?'

'Oh god, no. Mami, you guys still maintain your identities and who you are exceedingly well, actually, compared to some of my friends' parents, anyway. And you guys are both pretty cool, actually. You know, for moms, anyway,' she added, taking a sip of her now fully-doctored coffee, and liking it.

'Oi!' Santana and Brittany both mock-cried, pretending to be insulted. Soon, their waffles arrived and they began to eat and fell into easy conversation about anything and everything – normal things, mostly – as if this was the most normal thing in the world. Because, as far as they were concerned, it was. It was just two mothers and their daughter, having a family meal together. Eventually, the subject of conversation came around to Sugar's living situation.

'So, you've been here for almost three months...where have...what have you...,' Santana began.

'What your Mami is trying to say, I think,' Brittany said, chuckling openly at how her girlfriend got tongue tied, 'is that you've been here for a while, and we're kind of curious about how you've been taking care of yourself. Like, where have you been living? How are you feeding yourself?'

'You know that motel off of Route 8 just outside town?' Sugar asked, her voice full of trepidation, fearing the full-scale explosion from both of her mothers that she knew was about to happen.

'Yes...' Santana answered suspiciously, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

'Well, they have studio rooms they rent out for very cheap and ask surprisingly little questions...'

'Wait, hold up,' Santana said, her voice dangerously calm. 'Are you telling me...'

'...us,' Brittany interjected.

'...us,' Santana corrected herself, smiling goofily at her girlfriend like a goober for the briefest of moments, before continuing. 'Are you telling us that you are living in that seedy motel? By yourself?'

'...yes?' Sugar said timidly, smiling anxiously hoping that that would deter, at least slightly, the oncoming storm of yelling that she knew was coming.

'WHAT?!' To Sugar's surprise, it was Brittany, not Santana who lost her cool first, and raised her voice, though by the looks of it, it was only because Santana was so angry she couldn't form coherent words, instead only sit, shaking and stewing in her own emotions. That didn't last long however, and soon the dam was broken and both her parents were speaking – quite loudly, some might even call it yelling – at her, at the same time.

'SUGAR ELIZABETH! HOW COULD YOU?! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?' Brittany cried, at the same time Santana was also scolding Sugar,

'HOW ARE YOU EVEN ABLE TO RENT A ROOM?! YOU'RE TOO YOUNG! AND HOW ARE YOU PAYING FOR THIS ROOM?!'

'Stop, please!' Sugar cried, her lower lip trembling and her voice cracking dangerously. It wasn't that she wasn't used to being yelled at by her parents – her Mami especially – but when it happened in her timeline, they at least usually had the decency to do it in private, not in the middle of a waffle house. And it was hardly ever both of them at once; granted, that was partly because her Mommy was usually the much calmer-headed of her two moms, and rarely raised her voice. She knew they were only yelling out of concern and love – they really did take to this unexpected motherhood like fishes to water – but the fact remained that it was unnerving, and slightly scary. 'Please, stop yelling. I'll answer your questions but when you're both shouting at the same time I can't understand what either of you are saying,' she tried again, finding her voice more strong this time, though her lips did still quiver slightly.

Santana was the first to respond,

'How...how are you able to rent a room? You're far too young. I mean, you're what, fourteen?'

'Fifteen, Mami. That's probably something you should memorise – you're daughter's age,' Sugar said, trying to interject a little humour to the situation – but Santana did not look well pleased at such antics, and continued, after correcting herself.

'Sorry, Sugar. Fifteen. But didn't you only just turn fifteen a few months ago?,' she asked, and after getting the confirmation of this fact, continued, 'You're only fifteen, how are you able to rent a room? And I mean, how are you paying for it? Where are you getting the money?' she asked, before pausing for breath and, her mind catching up with her mouth, she gasped, covering her mouth slightly before very quietly and tenderly asking, 'You're not...nobody is..._taking advantage_ of you...?'

Sugar looked at her mother in slight confusion. Her parents had made sure that she wasn't sheltered like some other parents did to their children, however, they did do their best to make sure they preserved her innocence and childhood for as long as they possibly could. Their philosophy was that if they had to chose between her being a late bloomer who still saw the world with childlike wonder into her teens and didn't date until college, that was perfectly fine with them. And they were clearly successful to some extent, though only partially so on the dating front, as she had just accepted an invitation to her first ever date with a boy the week before she had disappeared into this timeline, and she still hoped to go on it; but thankfully, when it came to sex and some of the bad things that some people could and did do, she was still thankfully naive. Realising the fact of her naiveté where this was concerned, and realising her daughter was still thankfully innocent to such things, Santana quickly closed her eyes, smiled ever so briefly, and crossed herself.

'What do you mean?' Sugar asked.

'_Muchisimas gracias, mi cristo_,' she quietly muttered before opening her eyes again and taking Sugar's hand in both of hers tenderly, and began to speak, 'I'm glad that you're okay,' she said meaningfully before continuing. 'Its just...grown-up stuff that I am thankful to God that you are still happily naive about. Let's just say that sometimes...there are sometimes bad people out there who will sometimes...take advantage of young people, around your age. Especially young, pretty girls like you – but sometimes young boys, too,' she added, not wanting her daughter to get the wrong impression – 'especially if they think that the young person is in a bad situation, maybe they're running away from home, or something, and they don't have a lot of money and are desperate...sometimes, well, sometimes, these scumbags take advantage, in a...physical...way of children...,' she explained, noticing her daughter's face grow pale and her eyes grow wide in shock and fear – she also noticed the look her girlfriend was making over Sugar's head – the look that said "don't completely destroy our daughter's innocence", and she realised that her explanation was more than sufficient. 'And I can tell by your reactions that nothing like that has happened to you, and for that I am so infinitely thankful. Thank God you are okay, Mijita, I don't know what I would do if something had happened to you and I was able to protect you but didn't,' she said, fighting back the tears from her eyes and the trembling from her voice. After pausing briefly to get her composure back, she asked,

'So that brings us back to my original question. You're only fifteen. How are you able to rent a motel room – even one as sleazy as that one? I mean, I would think they still required some kind of ID – and money'

'Well, I found a bit of money in the DeLorean when I first got here. Which, like I said, was completely on accident'

'How much money?'

'A couple grand?'

'a couple grand?!' both Santana and Brittany retorted with raised, shocked voices.

'Yeah, it was in the car when I got here. I assume Mommy must have put it in there, because I found it with her notes – I assume they were probably meant for herself, but I've been using the notes and the money for myself. When I figured out the time machine wasn't going to be able to work to bring me back immediately, cos its out of fuel or something and I have no idea how to work it or fix it or whatever, I figured I'd need some place to stay until I could, or until you could,' she said to Brittany, 'or something. So I've been using that money for rent and to pay for food and clothes and a cell phone and all the other essentials to help me blend in'

'Well, that's enough of that,' Santana said, in a voice that would brook no arguments, Brittany nodding along emphatically.

'That's right, sweetheart, you're not living in that dump anymore. You're leaving that place, tonight, and coming home to live with us,' Brittany said, smiling and squeezing her daughter's shoulder supportively.

'What? No...I...No, I can't...' Sugar stammered, barely able to stutter out her answer, looking almost terrified.

'Why the hell not?' Santana asked, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. 'I swear to God, Mijita, if someone at that sleazeball motel is taking advantage of you and you are lying to me – to us – to protect them, I will ground you until your fifteenth birthday in your proper timeline, and the police will never find the body, I...'

'San, calm down,' Brittany said, soothingly. 'You're frightening our daughter'

Immediately chastened, if only slightly, Santana looked at her daughter and saw that what she had originally interpreted as fear, more likely wasn't. She looked down at her daughter's perfect little face – even though she wasn't that little, obviously, being her mother even for such a short time had already impacted her internal dialogue as to how she thought about the girl – and saw a combination of tiredness, and yes, a little fear, but mostly, sadness. And her heart broke. She never wanted to see her daughter sad like this, ever again.

'What's wrong, Mijita? It can't be because I lost my cool back there...I'm sure I've done more than my share of that in your timeline, eh?'

Sugar snorted due to laughter at that comment, but as soon as the laughter had come – and along with it a bright smile – they were gone.

'No, of course not, Mami. That's not it. Its just...I want to come with you. To your house, with Mommy. To be able to call it 'home'. To be able to come home to my mommies and have a proper family life here...it would make things so much easier until I can get back to my timeline, but...'

'But what, Sugar Bean?' Brittany asked, encouragingly.

'But...But when I was growing up, you both told me stories about how this period of time...your last years of high school, and then your first few years of university...were some of the best, most special of your lives. How you grew so close, and had so much fun, learning and loving and living together, learning how to be domestic with each other and doing boring, domestic stuff together and starting to build your lives together and all that gushy romantic stuff...and...and I mean, I want so bad to be a part of your lives here, and for you to be a part of mine and us to be a family...but this is supposed to be your special time for yourselves, and if I come and intrude it might...it might ruin everything and I might never be born and...'

Both of the other girls 'awwed' indulgently at the sweetness of their daughter.

'My sweet little Sugar Bean,' Brittany began. 'What makes you think that just because we have this time as special time for us, that you aren't a part of it?'

'Well, I mean, when I was growing up, you didn't tell me...'

'Just because we don't tell you, doesn't make it necessarily so that it doesn't happen. I mean, why would we tell an impressionable little girl that she was going to time travel and meet her mommies as teenagers? Especially considering that Santana and I are your mothers, that would be a recipe for disaster!' She said, and all three girls shared a brief laugh, before Brittany continued, 'after all, we don't share with you all the graphic, sordid details of our sex life...,' she began as she waggled her eyes seductively at her future-wife over their daughter's head, 'so what makes you think that we didn't just hide these details from you as well?'

'I...well...I...I didn't...'

'Exactly,' Brittany said, smiling smugly. 'And I can promise you this, Sugar Elizabeth Pierce-Lopez. Having you around will do nothing to weaken our relationship. Trust me, anything that could have torn us apart has already tried. I love your mother more than she could ever know...and I have loved her for as long as I can remember'

'The same goes for me,' Santana replied. 'I've secretly and not-so-secretly loved your mother since middle school, at least, and even before then, we've been best friends since we were seven years old. Us being together and the way we feel about each other...now that we've finally gotten to the point where we are...there's no going back, Mijita. You need to understand that. I'm never going to break up with your mother, ever. She's stuck with me as long as she'll have me'

'The same goes for your Mami,' Brittany added. 'I've been in love with her just as long as she has with me, maybe even longer,' she said, threading the fingers of her free hand with those of Santana's, 'and she's stuck with me forever because I'm never breaking up with her, and if she's never breaking up with me, then...well, you're a smart girl. You know where this leads,' she said, kissing Santana's fingers on their intertwined hand.

'I love you so much,' Santana said, huskily.

'I love you too,' Brittany replied. After a few brief moments of gazing into each others' eyes and smiling like fools, they both remembered what had brought that on and came to and got back to the point to hand.

'So, you can see, Mija,' Santana said confidently, 'there is nothing that is going to threaten your existence from coming home and living with your mothers. Now, I am putting my foot down. I will not have any child of mine living on her own at just barely fifteen years old, staying in some sleazeball motel when her place is at home with her moms, and .final.,' she said, really starting to come into her own with this whole 'motherhood' thing just by following her instincts. She knew it probably wouldn't always be this easy – after all, that's why there are so many books on raising children – but she also knew that she _was_ good, and whilst it was easy, she would certainly take it.

'As soon as we are done here, we are going straight to that motel and moving you out,' she continued, firmly but kindly, so her daughter would know that she wasn't angry, 'and we are bringing you home with us. Your place is at home, with your moms, where you belong, and that's that, I'm not taking "no" for an answer'

'Yes, Mami,' Sugar said in a voice that was partially defeated and partially ecstatic.

'Oh, and Sugar?'

'Hmm?'

'You might not be a little girl anymore,' Brittany said. 'But you are still "growing up" – at this stage in our lives, even your Mami and I are still "growing up", so you _certainly_ are,' she added.

'Yes, Mommy,' Sugar giggled happily, as she returned to her waffle and ate with vigour.

As they were leaving the waffle house, Santana said softly to her daughter,

'You know I'm going to confiscate the rest of that money, right?'

Sugar nodded plainly. She had a feeling that was the case, and it was fair, since it was, technically, her parents money anyway. Even if technically they wouldn't have earned it until the future, but she still got confused about the intricacies of time travel more frequently than she would like to admit. And besides, she knew she would still get some spending cash as necessary, so it wasn't a problem.

'And your phone'

'What? Why?'

'Relax, you'll get it back tomorrow. I'm taking it for the rest of the day because you almost gave me a heart attack back there,' she said. Santana was also doing it so that her daughter would know that she was serious about this whole 'Mami' thing. She was all in, just like she was with Britt, and in this case, that being all in, she was sure, would mean including disciplining her daughter as well – after all, if she was the daughter of herself and Britt, she was positive she would get herself into trouble more than enough times. And she needed to know that her daughter knew that she was serious, about everything, including that. 'And also, so I can add your phone to my family plan. That's the good thing about your abuelos being out of the country and showing me their love monetarily...they just put as much money as I need in the account and don't ask too many questions, so adding you to our family plan won't even register on their radar. And besides...why shouldn't my daugher be on my family plan?' she added, pulling her daughter into a side hug as they approached Santana's car.

'Can I drive?'

'Absolutely not'

* * *

Later that day after they had checked Sugar out of the motel and moved her into what was now being affectionately referred to alternatively as just 'home' or the 'Pierce-Lopez Residence', which was surprisingly more involved than they thought – for a girl who appeared to this timeline with nothing but the clothes on her back, she acquired a decent amount of things in very short order: enough clothes to satisfy any teenage girl, some books, paper and art supplies, and very other bric-a-brac. In reality, it wasn't really a lot, but considering that she had acquired it all within her three months of becoming stranded in 2012, it was impressive. Of course, it was also completely understandable: she was doing the best she could to recreate as best she could an environment where she felt at home. And Santana and Brittany hoped desperately that now that she was living with her mothers that she would feel much more at home and safe, and less frightened and alone. Of course, it still wasn't home as she knew it – most of her things that she had in her room in her home in 2033 were still there, including her special bedsheets, and posters on her walls, her music collection, her stuffed elephant Mr Kazoo and a whole number of other things. But the two older girls hoped that, with time, though could at least replicate something of a close approximation, in feel and hominess, if not in exact replicate.

After they had moved their daughter into what was now officially and affectionately known as her room, Brittany had rushed out of the house again to 'pick up some things', including, Santana hoped, Breadstix takeaway for dinner. She knew that despite being Friday they weren't going to be able to have their date night that night, for other more important reasons, but she hoped they could still get that Italian bready goodness for their dinner. Whilst the blonde was gone, Santana helped her daughter set up her room to make it as nice as possible, despite being quite bare by most standards, but she knew that would change eventually. In the meantime, she was helping her daughter make her room feel as much like her own room that she was used to as possible.

'So, Sugar,' she asked, nervously, as she helped her tiny daughter stack books onto the built-in bookshelf in the room she had selected as her own. 'I was wondering...you don't have to answer if you don't want...but I'm curious...'

'Hmm?'

'Well, I think I might already know the answer, but I don't know as much about science as Brittany does and I could be way off, so...umm...'

'You'

'Me? What me?'

'You were going to ask me which of you carried me and gave birth to me, right?

'Well, I was going to use the term "birth mother" but yeah'

'Well, you shouldn't use that term. Its not like I'm a baby of adoption. I am a daughter of two women who love me very much. You carry me to term and give birth to me, though, so in that sense, you are my "birth mother". But we never use that term, because Brittany is as much responsible for my birth and existence, and according to what you've told me in the past-slash-future, was with you every step of the way, so she's equally a birth mother, too'

Santana smiled happily and proudly at her daughter.

'And besides, I share genetic material from both of you'

'Sug...I'm pretty sure that's impossible. I may not know a lot about science, I know that you need both an egg and some sperms. If its something we told you when you were a toddler to be cute or whatever, well, I think maybe you and I should have a special kind of talk...'

'Whoa, whoa, whoa...no thanks. We already had that talk. Er, well, the first part, anyway. You said it was "The Talk: Part 1" last year. We don't need to do it again, especially with a much younger version...no offence Mami, its just...I...'

'None taken. I'm just curious, then, why you think...'

'Because its true. Look, back about a year before I was born, a new kind of technology was developed in the IVF repertoire. It was originally designed for gay men, actually, but didn't really take as it seemed to be overly complicated when they could just get a surrogate, so the technology was adapted and reverse engineered, and well, basically, a new procedure was developed for nice same-sex female couples like you and Mommy, that one partner would fulfill the traditional role of providing the egg and the uterus, whilst the other partner would donate an egg – actually a few, for scientific reasons, but only one is strictly necessary, apparently – and the scientists would do..._something_...to it, I dunno what, exactly, but basically they'd extract the genetic material from the egg and make sort of...artificial sperms, so that two moms could have babies together where both parents would provide genetic material. That material is then implanted into the other mother's egg, and wham, bam, thank you ma'am, nine months later...you know the drill'

Santana stared at her daughter wide-eyed, in shock.

'Its not a widely performed procedure, even amongst the lesbian community yet,' Sugar said. 'At least that's what Mommy tells me, because honestly the whole thing when its not related directly to my birth is kind of boring and I don't care what dumb protesters think, but I'm living proof that it is possible and does happen, even if rarely'

Santana was still staring at her daughter, wide-eyed in shock. But at least now there was also a huge smile plastered on her face. She didn't know if any of what her daughter said was actually true, but it sure felt true and real to her, and it certainly made her happy to speculate about, either way.

Santana's phone chose that exact moment to ring. It was Brittany.

'Hey Babe,' Santana answered

'Hi, San, how's my favourite MILF?'

'MILF? Brittany are you calling me old? I'm only two months older than you.'

'What, no, San...MILF doesn't mean you're old. If you were old you'd be a cougar. And I'm not into cougars. But apparently Puck is...though I think that's kind of gross, because cougars are cats and he's a human and I think that's kind of gross and illegal. But at the same time, some people think the same thing about us, and that's bullying and not fair and I won't tolerate it, so I shouldn't judge. I just hope he likes the taste of raw deer meat, because if he ever finds a nice cougar to settle down with that's all he's going to eat,' she said seriously, and Santana just smirked and shook her head at her girlfriend's words, smiling indulgently. She loved her girlfriend, including all her quirks and eccentricities and the way her mind made connections like this a regular occurrence. There was no one better, and when she was with Brittany there was certainly never a dull moment. Brittany continued, 'San, MILF stands for Mother I'd Like to Fuck, and you definitely fill all the requirements for that...'

'Oh yeah?'

'Well, if you don't believe me, wait until tonight'

'Oh yeah?'

'Yeah. I'm bringing home Breadstix, as well as a bunch of other stuff to help Sugar get nice and settled in with us and stuff...but I know that tonight was supposed to be our date night and that getting Sugar settled is more important, so I figured we'd have a family night tonight instead and we'd all watch movies and eat Breadstix and have a good time. But tonight, Babe, when our daughter is in bed? I'm going to do such nasty, dirty things to you...'

'Oh yeah, like what?' Santana asked, her breath hitching slightly, which made her sound just that much sexier to Brittany. She hadn't noticed that her daughter had long since left the room, not wanting to listen in on her parent's apparently borderline phone sex conversation.

'Hold on, I'll show you,' Brittany said. She then quickly took a picture of herself in the fitting room at the mall she was in, trying on sexy underwear. She then sent the picture to Santana who received it a few moments later and immediately felt herself at the same time become slightly light headed as well as her mouth at the same time becoming insatiably dry and watering.

'I can tell by the silence on your end that you like them,' Brittany was saying on the other line, and you're probably making that really cute face you make when you're trying to compose yourself when you're distracted. 'I hope you like ripping them off me later just as much'

'Oh, believe me, Babe, I can't wait'

'Neither can I, San. Neither can I,' Brittany agreed huskily. 'Is Sugar there?' she asked, changing the subject.

'Yeah she's right...err, she's left the room. I think she must have left when we started getting graphic over the phone, we might need to adapt a bit, there...'

'Yeah, probably,' Brittany said sounding only slightly disappointed. 'But we can still sext, right?'

'I hope we never stop sexting,' Santana said.

'Aww, San, you're so sweet. But I need to talk to our daughter for a minute could you put her on?'

'Sure, give me a sec, Britt,' Santana said, cradling the phone in the groove of her neck she exited Sugar's room and shouted 'Sugar! Brittany is on the phone for you!'

A moment later Sugar was taking the phone from her mother to speak to her other mother.

'Hi'

'Hi, Sugar Bean. So I'm here at the mall and I'm going to pick up some movies for family night tonight, because I think we all need some family bonding time,' when she said this Sugar smiled so broadly that Santana thought that Brittany must have been able to hear it, whatever she had said had surely made the younger girl happy. 'And I might pick up a few little odds and ends here before I get groceries and Breadstix for dinner, and I just have a few quick questions, and I feel bad because I feel like future me knows all this stuff already, but we haven't had the time to raise you and get to know you like that yet, so there are just some things that you're going to have to tell me, or your mother, or both of us, occasionally, ok?'

'Of course, Mommy, not a problem. I understand.'

'Good. Okay, first question: Do you have any allergies I need to know about, especially to food? Second question: What is your favourite colour? Next question: What's your favourite Disney movie? What's your favourite non-Disney movie? Do you have a favourite animal? And keep in mind your movie choices have to be ones that have been made already, not something that comes out in like, 2030, or something'

Sugar laughed and loved her Mommy's eccentric thought process and the random questions that sometimes followed from that.

'No allergies of any kind, food or otherwise. My favourite colour is a tie between cobalt blue and kelly green, my favourite Disney movie is the Little Mermaid, my favourite non-Disney movie is a tie between Wuthering Heights, the James Bond movies and anything with Superheroes in it, and my favourite animals are, in order: foxes, elephants, cats, dogs, dragons, rabbits, griffins, dolphins and fish. Especially tuna fish.'

'Excellent. I'm sorry I didn't know that yet, but I guess I shouldn't be too sad because in like six years you'll be born and we'll get to learn that from scratch right? Its okay though, because I love you anyway and it'll be fine. Put your Mami back on the phone please,' she said, and Sugar did as she was bidden and handed the phone back to Santana.

That night the girls bonded more than they had up to that point and had truly become a family. They decided that, should anyone become suspicious or put their noses where they don't belong, or someone should slip up, the defence they would use at school was that Sugar was Santana's little cousin who was having trouble at home, and she was being looked after by Santana and Brittany. They hoped they wouldn't have to lie to anyone, and it make all of them a bit sad to have to think of something to tell people that wasn't the truth – it made them all feel slightly ashamed and dirty – but they also all knew that being open about Sugar being their daughter from the future was a very dangerous idea as well. And later that night, once Sugar had fallen asleep in her Little Mermaid sheet-covered bed in her room, in her home (at least in this timeline), Santana and Brittany were able to spend some quality alone time with themselves, which they promised each other from that point on that no matter what was going on in their lives, no matter how crazy their lives became with school, or careers, or raising Sugar, they would always – always – make time to just be each other, to just be together. They promised each other that they would always make time for each other to just be Brittany and Santana, two best friends who fell in love with each other.


	6. Chapter 6: A Song for Momma

**Author's Note: Well, another chapter already! Amazing how inspired to write I get when I have to write three seminar papers and a field report for my MA course by the end of next month, right? Well, whilst my studies suffer (slightly, I'll get my work in on time, fear not, Internet!), you lucky people benefit with another chapter! This one is pretty long because the last one was a bit shorter than usual (also the story/plot points just kept growing and growing and demanding to be written, so there you go. I hope you enjoy). Standard disclaimers, I don't own any of the characters, songs, etc. I make no money from this. English is my third language. There will be a more in-depth AN at the end of the chapter. Happy reading!**

The Past: 2012, three weeks before Christmas

After the excitement with Sugar and their family bonding, the three girls of the newly-minted, slightly unorthodox Pierce-Lopez family had things calm down to a dull roar, at least somewhat. Sugar and her two moms settled into a fine domestic routine in which they were all happily involved, but which still left the two girlfriends plenty of alone time and their teenage daughter equally enough alone time as well. Their normal, everyday, mundane domesticity however, helped them all bond, and grow closer both as individuals as well as a family, and for Santana and Brittany, as a couple as well. For a while, much of the controlled chaos of activity surrounding the girls' lives focused first on the Mash-Off with the New Directions, which they not only won, but blew the New Directions out of the water, and then Sectionals, which, Santana and Brittany grudgingly admitted after the fact, the New Directions not only won, but deserved to win, as well.

Luckily, all three girls – yes, even Sugar who hadn't even been part of the original New Directions – and Mercedes had all been welcomed back to the New Directions with open arms, and had been promised by Mr Shue that the solos and spotlight would be more evenly distributed, now that he had seen how much star power the girls had and what they could really do. It also meant he'd be expecting a lot more from all of them, but the trade-off was that glee club was no longer the Rachel Berry and Lady Hummel show, so they were all extremely happy with the situation.

Over the past few weeks of the newly reunified New Directions, everyone seemed to be closer to each other, friendly, more caring towards each other. And it was in a real, honest way – they honestly cared more for each other, Santana included – and seemed to be making much more of an effort to be actual friends with each other. It seemed that the time the choir groups had split and the sometimes quite hostile competition between the two groups, and their subsequent reunification had made them all fully appreciate to a greater degree the friendship they had with each other. Even Santana was being more genuine. Granted, she still always filled the role of knocking Rachel Berry off her high horse a peg or two, but that was because she was still full of herself, despite everything that happened, and someone had to do it because Sheuster certainly wasn't going to. But even Rachel and Santana were on better terms than they had been before. Overall, it was a brilliant situation for all involved. Except for the fact that it made hiding the extent of the situation with Sugar much more difficult than any of the Pierce-Lopezes, as they now thought of themselves (and Sugar always had), had thought. Thankfully, up until this point any curiousness was dispelled with their 'Sugar is Santana's cousin and Santana took her in because her family situation is not good' excuse, but they weren't sure how long it was going to last. For now they hoped it would last until they were able to find a way to get Sugar back home to her proper timeline.

In the meantime, the girls were all sat together in a family group chatting amongst themselves, and with Puck, Finn and Tina – who Santana still affectionately called 'Girl Chang' – who were sat near them, in the back rows of the choir room as they waited for Mr Shue to get there so they could start the glee club meeting. Finally he came striding into the choir room with a bit of extra spring in his step than normal, and before anyone could make a joke about his always being late, he strode straight to the board in the centre of the room.

'Alright guys, so I've noticed something that's happened since we've re-formed into one group,' he said without preamble. 'It looks to me like you're all putting away a lot of your petty differences. You seem to be genuinely closer, kinder to each other. Even those of you who were either not friends at all or your friendships were based on fighting back and forth, you seem to not be doing that so much anymore. And I think I know why. You're finally meshing, you're clicking. You know that if we're going to win regionals we have to be focused and together like a single unit,' he began with his usual pomp and pizzaz. 'But honestly, I think that's only secondary. That's not as important as what I really think is going on here. I know we always talk about being a family in here, but a lot of times we've had a lot to live up to in terms of actually being one. But I think we're finally there. For many of us in this room it may have been harder or easier than others, and some have gotten a lot closer with certain others a lot faster than with others, but I think this whole previous semester with the Trouble Tones and everything that went on kind of drove home that yes, we are a family. We might fight and disagree and squabble and even not like each other every once in a while, but whenever that happens, we'll always come back to each other, stronger and more close and with better understanding than ever before,' he said, smiling brightly and beaming at each and every single person sitting in the choir room.

'Which is why,' he began again, 'I think a very apt assignment for this week, given this situation, and given that in two weeks you will all be leaving for your Christmas holidays, I think it is not only apt but very important,' he said, turning to the board and uncapping his marker pen. He then wrote on the board in the centre of the room in big, black, block letters one word **FAMILY**.

'Your assignment for this week, guys, is simple. I want you to sing a song about family. It doesn't mean it has to have family in the words or title or anything cheesy like that – in fact, I want you to dig deeper. I want you to really think about what it is that family means to you. What reminds you of family. If you closed your eyes right now and I pointed a gun to your head and told you the only way to save yourself was to tell me what family meant to you – that is what I want you to sing about. Those are the kinds of songs I want to see this week'

Will Shuester's enthusiasm for the assignment was contagious and even the most snarky of the glee clubbers were wholeheartedly behind the assignment. The rest of the glee club meeting went by without hitch or anything out of the ordinary.

* * *

A few days later, Sugar was walking in the corridors from her locker to her next class, history. She loved history: it and English were probably her favourite lessons, and she was excited. She was also happily distracted because Rory, the exchange student from Ireland who was living in her Mommy's house – what she knew in her time as Granny and Grandpa's house – who was cute despite the fact that she could only understand maybe two thirds of anything he ever said, had talked with her during lunch today. She hadn't sat with Santana and Brittany because they wanted to have some time alone and she was more than happy to oblige so her moms could have some alone time for themselves, even if it was just over lunch at school. So she had sat with the other glee club kids, including Mercedes, Sam and Rory, and she and Rory had had a very nice conversation over the whole period. They had been laughing and talking so much she had almost forgotten to eat! Mercedes and Sam were fun, too, of course, but her favourite part about the past lunch hour was talking with Rory. She was pretty sure he had been flirting with her, too. Which was nice. It was especially nice because she didn't know him, or even really hear of him, in her timeline, so she knew that he didn't have any sort of history with either of his moms, which was good because she couldn't bring herself to flirt with anyone who had done that – or maybe more – with either of her moms, before they were out and together. She really liked flirting with Rory, though, and hoped she could do it some more in the future.

She was so happy and engrossed in her own little world – as often was the case with her – as she walked she didn't realise that Rachel Berry was walking beside her and talking to her until she felt herself being shaken slightly on the arm and Rachel's voice pierced her haze,

'Sugar...Sugar...Sugar, are you listening to me?'

'Huh...what...oh, hi, Rachel! How are you? Have you been there long?'

'What...have I...Sugar, I've been talking to you for the past five minutes'

'No you haven't'

'Yes, I have. I've been walking and talking with you since you passed Miss Pilsbury's office'

_Damn_.

'Oh, Sorry, A...Rachel,' She said, quickly covering her near slip-up. 'I've kind of been in my own little world today, I...I've got a lot on my mind'

'Yeah, that's what I was talking to you about...err, hoping to talk to you about'

'Huh?'

'Well, Sugar, its just that, given what this weeks glee club assignment is, and given your family situation, I figured maybe it might be a bit difficult...'

'What do you mean? My family situation is fine,' Sugar snapped in reply a bit too forcefully and quickly before remembering the cover she and her moms had come with.

'Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, but you know I've heard through...the grapevine...'

'So, Mercedes'

'I can neither confirm nor deny that'

'Whatever'

'Anyway, I heard that you are Santana's cousin, and...not to be indelicate, but the reason you're staying with her is because she took you in because your family situation is...not the best...' Rachel said, trailing off, hoping for an indirect confirmation.

'Santana is my family, Rachel'

'Oh, no, no, I know, I get it. You're still family, she's your cousin and she took you in, and she looks after you because you're family but...its not the same as your parents, right?'

Sugar closed her eyes and sighed, steeling her nerves so that she didn't blow her cover due to bitching out her future Aunt.

'Santana is my family, Rachel. What do you want?'

'No, I know, I don't mean to offend or anything like that, its just...you know, she's only three years older than you, and hardly able or qualified to look after a child...'

'I'm not a child, Rachel'

'You know what I meant'

She didn't, but she let it slide and pretended as if she did.

'What do you want Rachel?'

'Nothing...I...I just wanted to let you know...if you ever need someone to talk to...I'm here. Or if you need help with this week's assignment or anything...cos maybe its a bit too difficult to think about...I can help, I know all sorts of songs you could use from all the Broadway greats that are all within your vocal range, or I could give you some voice coaching, or...' she began, starting to ramble.

Sugar thought it was cute how she wanted to help, though she really didn't appreciate the holier-than-thou attitude and tone she took to employ her message, or the way she talked down about her Mami – though of course she wouldn't tell Rachel that for fear of being found out. She was also worried about Rachel getting too close because, annoying as she might be, she still was a very intelligent woman and would find out sooner or later if given the opportunity. Not that Sugar liked hiding, but something told her that being open about being the fifteen year old daughter of two eighteen year old lesbians in Lima, Ohio was not the best thing for any of them. It also annoyed her that she thought that she needed help, automatically, with the assignment and only suggested Broadway songs that were 'in her range'. The the offer for vocal coaching was nice, but she no longer needed them, because she had already had them. From future Aunt Rachel. From ages four to eleven.

'Thanks for the offer Rachel, really, I appreciate the sentiment. But I think I'll be okay,' Sugar said politely, and walked away towards her history lesson just as the bell was ringing.

* * *

Glee met after school that same day. Brittany and Santana were of course sitting together in the back of the room, and Sugar was sitting not far from them, a few seats down next to Mike Chang and Rory. Whilst they waited for Mr Shue to come to class, as he was late, yet again, Sugar texted Brittany.

**I think AR is on to us. Had a really weird convo w her earlier**

**AR?**

**Aunt Rachel **

**Oh wat happened? **

**Will tell u and mami tonite**

**o ok. Whats up w u and irish? **

**Nothing**

**then y are u sitting w him and not us? :( **

**omg mommy its nothing! Pls stop -_- **

Brittany showed her phone to Santana, who giggled silently, before Brittany sent her next message to her daughter.

**:) :) ;P :P love you sugar bean xxoo :P **

When she received the text Sugar swivelled in her seat to look at her blonde mother, scrunch up her eyes, and stick out her tongue in response. Santana then sent her a text in response.

**You know if u keep doing that ur face will stick that way **

Mr Shue chose that exact moment to _finally_ show up, walking in to the choir room with an air of excitement and anticipation.

'Alright guys, today's the day...family assignments...Sugar, Santana phones away please,' he said as he made his way to his usual spot next to the piano.

'So, guys, today's the day. You guys remember I asked you to prepare for this assignment songs about what you think family means to you. Do I have any volunteers to go first?'

In a surprising move that nobody expected, Rory rose his hand and said,

'Mr Shue, if its all the same to you, I think I'd like to go first'

At least, that's what everyone thought he said because his accent was thick and everyone claimed they couldn't understand half of what he said.

'Yeah, sure thing, Rory, go ahead. The floor is yours,' said Mr Shue, beckoning Rory to the front. When Rory got to the performance area in the front of the room, he spoke.

'Right, well. Before I start my song, I want to say. Ireland is 3000 miles away and now that Christmas is coming, I'm feeling more homesick and lonely than ever. Especially because my Mammy told me she was going to try to fly out to see me, but I don't think its going to happen because my brother Seamus is in trouble with the neighbours again, and airline tickets are really expensive,' he began to rant, before shaking himself out of it. 'Anyway, I didn't mean to bring up a pity party or anything guys,' he said. 'Anyway, I just got to thinking how much I miss Ireland right now, even though all of you are great and are the next best thing to my own family...so I thought I'd bring a little bit of Ireland here,' he said, before nodding to Brad the Piano Player, and began to sing.

'_So fare thee well to Prince__'__s Landing Stage / River Mersey, fare thee well / I am bound for Cali-for-ni-ay / And I know that I'll return some day..._'

After a few bars of pure acapella singing from his surprisingly full, harmonic, lyrical voice, Brad the Piano Player began to accompany him, as well as a harmonica and mandolin that came seemingly from nowhere.

'_So fare thee well, my own true love / when I return, united we will be / it's not the leavin' o' Liverpool that grieves me / but my darlin', when I think of thee...'_

The club was in awe of not only the direction he took with the song, but also his skill with this very emotional, ballad-type of traditional music. However, soon they were clapping along or tapping their feet in time as he sang.

'_I have signed on the Yankee clipper ship / Davey Crockett is her name / and Burgess is the Captain of her / and they say that she's a floating shame..._'

When he got to the chorus again, he indicated with his hands that all his team mates should sing along, and so they did, happily, with Brittany and Santana both gleefully affecting their best pretend-Irish accents. Rory continued passionately – almost mournfully, to keep up with Irish stereotypes – singing,

'_Now the sun is in the harbour, love / and I wish I could remain / For I know it will be a long, long time / before I see you again...so fare thee well, my own true love / I am going far, far away / It's not the leavin' o' Liverpool that grieves me / but my darling, when I think of thee..' _

He finished his song and the entire glee club was silent. When before they were singing along to the chorus, and clapping or tapping their feet along in time, the end was solemn, sombre and melancholy and listening to it with anything but quiet respect seemed wrong. When he finished, though, he received hearty applause, hugs and high fives from all his team mates, and Tina Cohen-Chang may have even cried. When he had sat down, Mr Shue spoke.

'Yes! Yes, guys, that's it! That's exactly what I was talking about. Great job, Rory! Really. Amazing job, everyone give him another round of applause'

When the second round of applause died down, Mr Shue asked for his second victim – or rather, volunteer – to go next.

'Mr Shue,' Kurt said, his hand straight in the air. 'Finn and I would like to go next'

'Alright, that's what I'm talking about. The Hummel-Hudson brothers. The floor is yours guys,' he said. Whilst they were making their way down to the centre of the room, Sugar turned to Rory and said,

'I really liked your song, Rory'

'Thanks Sugar. I was really nervous, cos I know that not a lot of people would understand me cos my accent comes out stronger when I sing Irish music...and not a lot of people know about Irish music anyway, so I was worried'

'Well, I liked it,' Sugar said in a very 'and that settles that' tone of voice. Their conversation was cut off by Kurt and Finn's beautiful rendition of _He Aint Heavy, He's My Brother _which caused Santana to realise just how much of a sentimental, sensitive goober she really was, and how Brittany was right about that from the start.

It really was true, though. Deep down, she was a sensitive, sentimental, kind person; she was just not so good at showing it and she was very snarky and sarcastic which sometimes – well, often, for those who weren't willing to see it for it was – made it hard for others to see her as the good, kind person she really was. If she was guilty of being anything, it was of being misunderstood. But ever since she and Brittany came out of the closet, and became open about who and what they were and how they felt about each other, and especially since Sugar was transplanted into their lives, she was trying harder to be that person she was with Brittany and Sugar and a select few others with more people, to give the 'kindness' and 'friendship' thing a go with the other people in glee and her wider community. And, all things considered, she actually liked it. There was no doubt about the fact that she was still Santana Lopez, the baddest bitch around, if she wanted or needed to be. But she was finding out now more and more often she didn't need to hide behind that facade, or behind Snixx nearly as much anymore. But of course if anyone hurt Brittany, or her baby girl, or her glee family, there would be hell to pay. Luckily, most people knew better than to cross her. That said, she really liked this week's assignment. It was helpful to be able to understand one another better than they had before, and she really liked that.

'Mr Shue, I'd like to go next' she said, raising her hand.

'Go ahead, Santana, the floor is yours,' he said as she made her way down to where they all gave their performances.

'Ok, y'all. Mine is actually pretty short compared to most songs. Um, as some of you may know, my Abuela is...not okay with Brittany and I being together,' she said, taking a shaky breath to steady herself and her emotions as she talked about this. She thought that she had moved beyond the point where it hurt to even think or talk about it. After calming her nerves, however, she soldiered on. 'It has been something that has affected me since it happened, because my Abuela and I used to be very close. Until I started kindergarten and my parents finished their residency at the hospital, she practically raised me, and...I miss her terribly. I mean, I would never go back to the way things were before, never in a million years, but...I still miss her. Anyway, this song is a lullaby she used to sing me when I was a baby. It's been in our family for as long as anyone can remember...and I'm sure that when I have a child, I'll sing it to her, too,' she said, as she looked around the rooms taking in everyone's faces and surreptitiously sneaking a wink at Sugar who, at the mention of Santana's future children, snuggled ever slightly closer to her mother, who was smiling supportively at back at Santana. She then began to sing, with only the most minimal accompanimet from Brad the piano player,

'_Durme, Durme, querida hijica / Durme sin ansia y dolor / cerra tus chicos ojicos / __cerra los lindos ojicos / __durme, durme con savor / De la cuna saliras / a la escola tu entraras / y alli me querida hijica a meldar te ambezaras / Durme, Durme, querida hijica / Durme sin ansia y dolor / cerra tus chico ojicos / __cerra los lindos ojicos / __durme, durme con savor / De la escola saliras / a las pachas te iras / a y tu mi querida hijica / al empiego entraras..._'

She sang it not only with minimal instrumental accompaniment, but also with an almost complete lack of vocal acrobatics as well. She sang it completely straight, which for many made it all the more powerful. She sang it as if it were, indeed, a lullaby. Or perhaps a love song. Or a ballad. And perhaps it was, in some combination, all three. Whatever it was, it left many eyes suspiciously wet after she was done, one set of whom belonged to Brittany, who, after she and Santana caught each others' gaze, could only mouth 'I love you' and smile proudly.

Mr Shue of course was very impressed, both with her singing and her courage to share what she had with glee club, and he told her as much. After another round of applause from the glee club during which first Sugar, and then Brittany got up from their seats and hugged Santana tightly and warmly – with Brittany giving her a chaste but loving kiss, as well – Santana rejoined her girlfriend at their seats in the back to watch the final performance of the day, which was Rachel Berry singing some Broadway showtune or another. None of the three Pierce-Lopezes were paying attention as they were all rather emotionally drained, and all they wanted to do was go home.

* * *

That evening, as Sugar was explaining to Brittany the conversation she had had earlier with her 'Aunt Rachel', Santana went out to pick up a few things from the Mexican grocer in her Abuela's neighbourhood in Lima Heights. Sure, she could have gone to the Kroger's or any of the other big chain supermarkets, but she liked shopping in the Mexican market in the old neighbourhood. It made her feel connected to her past, the situation her parents came from, so that she didn't loose her roots, but also so that she knew exactly how she _didn't_ want to live when she was out of the house and working. But not only that, the Mexican market had some of the best deal on most types of foods around all of Lima, for usually much better quality stuff. Most non-Mexican people were just too scared to come to this part of town to do their shopping. But their loss was Santana's gain as she got some major deals on groceries that she was picking up, which was good because whilst her little family didn't have to worry about money, per se, at the moment thanks to her parents who were off who knows where, they still did have an extra mouth to feed and if they spent too much more money than usual there would be awkward questions she didn't feel like explaining just yet.

When she was in one of the aisles, however, the last person she expected to see there – though that was really a poor assumption on her part, since the market was in her neighbourhood, after all – was there, doing her shopping as well.

'Abuela?'

Santana couldn't believe her eyes. It was her Abuela. And they were in public, so she couldn't kick her out of anywhere. She needed to talk to her. She thought that maybe, just maybe, if she could get her to listen, she could get her to understand. Understand that how she felt, what she was – what she had with Brittany – was real, and deep and true and that all she wanted to do was be accepted so she could share this part of her life that brought her so much joy and happiness to her, with her Abuela. Maybe she could even introduce her to Sugar, so that she could see how serious what they had was. Maybe if she knew she would someday be a Bisabuela – after all, all older people softened when children of the next generation were involved, right?

'Abuela, its me, Santana. Talk to me, please'

Santana's abuela did not even react to the voice calling her. She simply carried on picking tins of beans off the shelf and placing them into her trolley.

'Abuela, please! Its me, Santana! Its still me, please talk to me! Abuela!'

'Abuela! Please!'

Nothing. Santana moved her trolley closer to her Abuela's, trying to box her in so that she would be forced to talk to her, interact with her in some way – something – in order to leave the aisle. But nothing. Her Abuela simply carried on with her shopping, continuing to ignore her grand-daughter.

'Abuela! Por favor...Abuelita, hablar conmigo...por favor...' Santana cried, but her grandmother simply hardened her lips into a straight line and backed her trolley out of the aisle the way she had come, resolutely refusing to even acknowledge her existence, as if she were dead.

* * *

Santana had managed – although just barely – to pay for her shopping and drive home before breaking down. She had walked in the house carrying the two bags of groceries to see her daughter and her girlfriend in a fit of giggles from some silly game of their own invention or another, although this one apparently required the use of paper hats made from the newspaper she had not yet finished reading. It would have been adorable, under any other circumstances.

'Oh, hi San, good you're back you can join – ,' Brittany began before she noticed her future-wife's face was extremely pale and her expression was one that she hadn't seen since she came out to her Abuela just under a year ago. Seeing that expression was never a good thing. She had hoped she'd never see that expression on Santana's face ever again.

'Santana, you're white as a sheet. What happened?'

'I saw her'

'What? Saw who, Babe?' Brittany asked, and Sugar too looked up in concern, her curiosity piqued.

'I saw her today. At the market. I saw Abuela'

Brittany knew this was bad. She knew given the situation with Santana's grandmother, and the situation that must have just occurred, and the look on the love of her life's face, something terrible must have happened. She didn't know what to say – or what she could say – so she just waited for Santana to finish her story in her own time.

'I called out to her. I wanted to talk to her. I thought maybe because we were in public I could get her to – I could force her to – listen. And if I could get her to listen, maybe I could get her to understand and maybe...maybe things would be better between us'

'And...what happened, Babe? Did she yell? Or throw her shoe at you?'

'No'

'No? Well, that's good...right?'

'No'

'No?'

'No,' Santana said, her emotions finally starting to get the best of her, but trying to hold back the well of tears threatening to stream forth until she had at least finished the story.

'She...she ignored me. Completely. Like, pretended I wasn't even there, that she couldn't hear me. I even tried to box her in with my trolley and...and she just backed out the other way, pretended I wasn't there...like I was dead!' At that, she couldn't hold it back anymore and the tears fell forth and she sobbed. She sobbed for what seemed like hours, days, even. She sobbed so hard she was aware of nothing but the sorrow, her hurt, her pain and anguish gushing forth like a waterfall. She knew her mascara was streaming black lines down her face and she must have looked pathetic, but she couldn't help it. She was bawling like a baby and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She didn't know when she had moved to the couch, or when Brittany had pulled her into her strong, comforting arms, but when her tears finally stopped, she was pulled tightly in a warm, comforting, loving embrace of her girlfriend, who looked on at her with nothing but concern and love. Even though she was bawling like a toddler and had mascara stains down her face, her girlfriend looked at her with nothing but concern and love, and it made her heart swell with happiness, despite the pain of the event with her Abuela. She knew, just from looking at the way her girlfriend looked at her, and the way she held her as she cried, that as long as she had Brittany by her side, she could deal with anything that came their way.

'Hey,' Brittany said softly when the crying had stopped.

'Hi,' Santana replied back weakly, sniffing her nose.

'I love you, Santana Maria Lopez. And that's the most important thing. I love you, and I'm here, and I will always love you and I will always be with you, no matter what. You are an amazing, beautiful, kind, wonderful woman, who is amazingly sexy, an amazing girlfriend, a wonderful mother, and wild in the sack,' she said, rubbing her hands in soothing circles on Santana's arms and back as she spoke. 'And if that wretched old bat can't see you for the amazing person you are, then fuck her. You don't need her, and neither do we. We've got each other, Santana, you and me. And we've got Sugar now, too. And that's all we need. We don't need anyone else in our lives who is going to cause us nothing but pain and heartache. We've got each other, and that's all we need,' Brittany said, emphatically ending her passionate speech about how amazing Santana was and how amazing and wonderful it was that they had found each other. She concluded with something that, between the two girls meant more, to both of them, than any amount of beautiful prose or fancy speeches. She softly sang, 'And I love you, I love you, I love you, like never before.'

Slowly, she stood up, helping Santana with her, and began leading her towards the stairs to their bedroom.

'Sugar,' she said. 'I'm taking your Mami upstairs. I think that she and I need to spend some time alone right now. Can you fend for yourself for the rest of the night?'

'O...of...of course, Mommy,' Sugar replied, a bit shaken at what had happened in front of her, more than a little bit shocked and a little bit frightened at whatever must have happened to make her Mami, a woman who she knew to be so strong, and proud, and tough, and who took no shit from anyone, unless you counted her other mother, but she didn't cos that wasn't the way their relationship worked, turn into a blubbering pile of goo and tears. Not that she judged or thought down about her Mami in the slightest. She was just in shock that anyone had enough power over her to reduce her to tears like that. She didn't think anyone could do that to Santana Maria Pierce-Lopez.

'Good. Put away the groceries your Mami just bought, there's food in the kitchen you can microwave. Remember to do your homework and not to go to bed too late because we have school tomorrow,' Brittany said, as she led her still sniffling girlfriend towards the stairs.

Without another word, Brittany led her girlfriend up the stairs to their bedroom and closed and locked the door behind them, and did not emerge until the next morning.

* * *

Santana awoke the next morning to soft light coming in from the window and the sensation of soft butterfly kisses all along her exposed skin whilst being held in Brittany's safe, comforting arms. After the incident with her Abuela the night before, when they had gone to their room, Santana and Brittany had a long conversation about themselves as a couple, and being together. Brittany had told her, over and over and over again, how amazing and wonderful she was and how much she loved her, and how she had loved her for so long and how she was so ashamed at herself, sometimes, for waiting so long to realise it and that it took them so long to get together.

But she also told her how happy she was that they were together, and how wonderful of a partner, and lover and mother she was, and how much of an amazing overall woman she was, and how she couldn't wait to wake up next to her everyday and fall just a little bit more in love with her every single day, from now until forever, and that she didn't care what her parents or Santana's Abuela or any of the homophobic bullies in the world thought or did; they didn't need people in their life that was that toxic and made them react the way they did, and if they couldn't love and accept them for the amazing, wonderful, sexy unicorns they were, both individually and as a couple, then fuck them. Santana had cried a lot last night. Both out of sadness, and of happiness that she had such a wonderful, amazing woman to call her own, who by some miraculous act of God, loved her back almost as much as she loved her. Although of course Brittany would claim that the roles were reversed in that respect, but that was just part of what made her – and them, together – so amazing.

There was also a lot of kissing. A lot of fervent, passionate, needy kissing. Kissing that was one of the girls attempts to show the other all they meant to the other, using only the medium of kissing. All the hopes, dreams, desires, thankfulness, and every other emotion that they felt they needed to express to each other than night was passed – or at least, attempted to be passed – from one girls' lips to the other. They weren't sexual – neither of the girls were in the mood to fool around or have sex, they felt far too emotionally drained and a host of other things that made sex not come to either of their minds. However, they certainly did feel the need to be physically close to each other that night, despite the lack of sexual desire for both of them. The previous night, both girls just wanted to cuddle, and kiss passionately, and make the other see how much they loved and appreciated the other for all they did for each other. And Santana cried even more that night until she eventually fell asleep in Brittany's arms as Brittany sang Songbird to her.

And she woke up with Brittany's strong arms around her as she planted butterfly kisses all over her face, neck, arms, and exposed chest. Eventually, her eyes fluttered open to look straight into Brittany's beautiful, deep blue ones.

'Good morning, Beautiful,' Brittany said.

'Hi'

'Hi. Feeling any better?'

'A bit. Thank you.'

'For what?' Brittany asked honestly.

'For doing what you did last night. For staying with me and holding me and letting me cry. For being you.'

'Santana, I love you so much, and it hurts me to see you in pain. When I see you like that, I only want to make you feel better. I want to make sure you know how much I love you, and that's hard because I don't think there is a number large enough to describe just how much I love you. You are my absolute Favourite Person and I would do all that and so much more besides, just to see you smile. Its nice that you appreciate it enough to thank me, but really, I would do it again, and so much more than you know, to make you happy. I love you so, so, much, Santana. More than I could ever say or show you,' she said, truly and passionately. Santana was slightly taken aback by such a forceful display of passionate emotion so early in the morning, but she certainly appreciated it. The words were so beautiful she was sure she was crying.

'No more tears,' Brittany added, confirming her suspicions, before she locked their lips together in a passionate, proper kiss that lasted at least five minutes.

'You're sure you're okay, San?' Brittany asked when they pulled away, concern and just a little bit of mischief on her face. 'Cos if not, its totally okay if you wanted to pull a sickie. I'd make sure Sugar got to school okay and then I'd come back and we could spend all day in bed together...' she said, coyly, running her fingers up and down Santana's body in a very suggestive way, just exactly the way she liked it. It was a very tempting offer, to say the least.

'No, no, Britt, its fine. I'll be okay. Really, I will. I'll be sad for a bit, but its okay, because I've got you, and we've got Sugar, and that's all I need is my two favourite girls,' Santana said. 'Besides, Sugar is singing in glee today and what kind of mother would I be if I missed it? And I can't come just to glee...we have to try to set a good example, Britt, you know,' she said, though she knew she sounded somewhat disappointed, but after all, she was giving up an entire day in bed, alone, with her amazing girlfriend, in favour of going to school. _Becoming a mother really does change you_, she thought to herself.

'In that case, Babe, I think I know just the way to make you not so sad anymore,' Brittany said, coyly, moving down the bed. 'Just lie back and relax, Baby, and I'll make you feel really good,' she added, waggling her eyebrows suggestively as she dived under the duvet to fulfill her promise.

* * *

Later that morning, as the three girls were eating their breakfast before heading to school, Sugar asked,

'So...with what happened last night,' she began, hoping that it wasn't too soon to ask questions, and luckily her Mami gave her a tired half-smile, urging her to go on, '...was that...was that my Bisabuela?'

'Yes'

'Why would she...how could she...I don't understand...'

'What do you know about your Bisabuela, Sugar?' Santana asked.

'Not a lot, just what you told me when I was younger. She looked after you a lot when Abuela y Abuelo weren't able to. She was an amazing cook, and a very old school woman who did things her own way...oh, and that towards the end of her life she definitely was senile and changed...but I don't really know what that means. Is that what happened last night? You...you don't have to tell me if its too soon, Mami, I can ask when I get back to my proper timeline...'

'No, no, its alright Mijita. I take it she's dead in your timeline?'

'Yes'

'Well, she is a stubborn old bat, sometimes I thought she'd outlive everyone just to prove a point. But eventually she had to die, too, I guess,' Santana said.

'What's her being dead got to do with anything, San?'

'Because you don't speak ill of the dead, Brittany. Especially not in Mexican culture.'

'Oh,' Brittany said, the broader picture finally clicking in her head.

'Mijita, as you probably have gathered by yesterday's events and what I said in glee yesterday, your Bisabuela is not supportive of your mother and I being together. She was very vehemently outspoken about that when I came out to her last year. She kicked me out of the house and told me that she never wanted to see or speak to me ever again. And I guess she meant it, because yesterday, she acted like I was dead when I tried to talk to her when I was shopping and saw her,' she said, sniffing back tears.

'Mami, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...'

'No, its okay, Princesa, its not your fault. You have a right to know. Its just sad, is all, because we used to be so close. When I was little I used to practically worship the ground she walked on, and now, its like I'm scum...it just hurts, that's all'

Sugar just nodded and continued eating her Lucky Charms. After a few minutes she spoke again, timidly.

'Do you...d'you think...maybe I could meet her?'

'I don't think that's a very good idea, Sugar Bean,' Brittany said.

'Please? Mommy? Mami? I know that it would be hard to arrange and it would be hard on all of us, but maybe if she met me and realised that you two are going to last? Ya know? Maybe if she knew that she would have a bisnieta out of it it might change her perspective? I always hear you guys talking about how children change everything, and how the older generation always change their tone when children are involved. Maybe if she knew that I was coming she'd...'

'I don't know, Sugar, I...'

'Please, Mami? Maybe this will be something good I can change in the past for our futures!'

'Is that even possible, Britt?'

Brittany nodded, before speaking

'But I don't know if its possible, with _her_ or even if its such a good idea to try...'

'Please? You guys, how amazing would it be if I could do this for you? I'd be like the best daughter ever! EVER!'

'You already are the best daughter we could ever ask for,' Brittany said

'I really don't know, Sugar. I don't think its such a great idea,' Santana said. 'And even if it does happen – which I am NOT saying it will, so don't you dare put words in my mouth – I really don't want you getting your hopes up. Your Bisabuela is the kind of person who once she's made up her mind, there's very little to do about it...'

'I understand, Mami. I just...I want to try, see if maybe it would work. And even if not, then at least I'll have met her once in my life...,' she said, sadly.

_Damn it, _Santana thought to herself.

'I'll think about it,' she said to her daughter, firmly. 'I'm not making any promises beyond that, but I'll think about it'

'How would we even do it, San? If she's ignoring you, its not like she'll let us in to her house'

'We could invite her to our Christmas party!'

'...What Christmas party?' Brittany and Santana asked simultaneously.

'You know, our annual Christmas party? The one we have every year, and all of your friends/my aunts and uncles and family and friends come from all over? We do it every year? Ringing any bells?'

'Sugar...this is the first year your mother and I will be spending Christmas together, alone, like this. Last year we were still in the process of coming out, and we both still had our families and family events to attend...we've never held such a Christmas party,' Brittany said.

'Oh. Oops. Sometimes I forget these sorts of things,' Sugar said.

'Its okay, Sugar, now you know. Maybe we can do something else instead...'

'I guess I probably shouldn't have told half of glee about it, then, huh?' Sugar said, but she at least had the decency to look ashamed about what she had done.

'No, you shouldn't have. These are the sorts of things you need to ask us about first, Sugar,' Brittany scolded lightly. 'Even though I know you thought it was a tradition that you were upholding, its a tradition that we haven't even started yet, and its not like we can cancel now, with Christmas getting closer every day. Your mother and I were hoping to just have a quiet Christmas, just us, this year,' she added, sighing slightly.

'I'm sorry, Mommy,' Sugar said, and meant it.

'Its okay, Sugar Bean,' Brittany said. 'Its not the end of the world. After all, its just a Christmas party, right?'

Sugar nodded happily, now that she knew she didn't ruin Christmas for her parents.

'So, when is this party we're apparently throwing?' Santana asked her daughter.

'Boxing Day'

'Oh, ok, well that's not too bad, Britt, is it? We can still have actual Christmas to ourselves as a family, isn't that right?'

Brittany and Sugar nodded enthusiastically, liking how Santana was seemingly much more calm about this than either had suspected.

'Ok, Mijita, are there any other traditions that you're going to spring on us that we wouldn't know about that we should?' Santana asked Sugar.

'We go to Midnight Mass at the Latino church every year. We never go to Church at all the rest of the year, but we do go to Midnight Mass'

'Ok, that seems do-able enough. Midnight Mass at Santa Maria de Gracia. We can certainly do that. Anything else?'

'The normal stuff. A tree, Christmas songs, Christmas cookies, Christmas movies. Presents. Family. Friends. All that good stuff,' Sugar said.

'Well,' Brittany said, getting up from the table to rinse her bowl and grab her bookbag, 'I think I can get behind that. Sounds like we're going to have a pretty good Christmas this year, Santana'

'Speaking of gifts, is there something in particular you want, Princesa?' Santana asked her daughter whilst her girlfriend was away.

'A music player, and noise cancelling headphones,' Sugar deadpanned immediately.

'What?' She asked, after she saw the look of disbelief her mother gave her. 'You and Mommy clearly haven't mastered the art of quiet sex yet, and that is not something a daughter should have to hear. There are a lot of cool things out there that I might like and think are nice, but what I want most is noise cancelling headphones and a music player to plug them in to'

'I'll see what I can do. Like with your Bisabuela, I make no promises. Now come on, vamanos, we're going to be late,' she said, getting up from the table, placing their bowls in the sink and quickly rinsing them as Sugar retrieved their book bags, and the three girls headed outside to Santana's car.

* * *

Later that day, Puckerman caught up to Santana in the corridors as she was walking to glee.

'So Lopez, what's this I hear about Sugar throwing a Christmas party at your house?'

_God dammit_, Santana thought to herself.

'Yeah, we're having a Christmas party at my place'

'Well, why did I have to hear about it from Mike Chang? I thought we were friends, Lopez'

'We are friends, Puckerman, don't make this about you'

'What? Wait...so I am invited right? Not that that ever stopped me before, but I'd be pretty offended if I wasn't'

'Yes, Puckerman, Jesus. Don't make this about you, its just kind of last minute and we hadn't really gotten around to telling people'

'Well, Sugar seems to be making up for lost time in that department'

'Yeah, well, that's another issue entirely.'

'So...standard issue party fare?' Puck asked, pretty sure of what the answer would be.

'No, Puck. This isn't going to be like the ragers you throw at your house. I'm not buying kegs just to have you get so shitfaced that you try to feel up Sugar, puke on my floor, and pass out in my front garden,' She said seriously. _If he so much as looks at Sugar wrong, I'll cut his balls off_, she thought. _I don't care if we have been friends for years. He's too old for her, and I know where he's been_.

'So what, you're turning into Berry, or something, now?' he asked, shocked. 'Are you going to have drink tickets and party games arranged before we show up and a drink maximum?'

'Oh, fuck off, Puckerman. You know I could never throw a Berry style party if I tried. Just because I'm not going to throw a rager like you have at your place because I don't want people destroying my house and passing out in my front garden doesn't mean my party is going to be lame. But its a Christmas party, not a kegger. There'll be some drinks, and food, and music and dancing for sure, just nothing too crazy. Besides, now that I'm looking after Sugar, too, I kind of have to be sort of responsible and shit. I mean, I'm responsible for her too and everything,' Santana said, hoping that would be enough for Puckerman.

'I dunno Lopez,' he said. 'We'll see what happens. If it sucks, I'm leaving'

'You act like that's a bad thing,' Santana bantered back and then left him behind to walk with Brittany and Sugar to glee.

* * *

As the three Pierce-Lopezes sat together towards the back of the choir room waiting, again, for Mr Shue who was late, as per usual, Santana said to Brittany

'I think we need to figure out exactly what kind of party this Christmas party is going to be. Puck's already talked to me,' she said, letting the rest of the sentence fade to nothing on her lips, as Brittany knew what that would mean without further explanation.

'Yeah, especially as far as alcohol and a certain young lady are concerned,' Brittany replied.

A few moments later, they both received a text from Sugar.

**U know I can hear you both im sitting right here**

'Good,' Santana said just loud enough for Sugar to here. 'We'll talk about it later, all three of us'

Mr Shue of course took that moment to walk into the choir room.

'Alright guys! Family assignments, day two! Who's excited? Sugar, phone away please,' he said, seemingly all at once as part of one thought as he walked into the room.

As he approached the centre of the room by his normal spot near the piano, he asked for the first volunteers for the day. First Mike Chang then Tina Cohen-Chang both volunteered and wound up going one right after the other singing and dancing well enough, though neither their song choices nor their singing were anything exceptional, although Mike's choreography was, as always, brilliant.

After Tina had sat down after her applause, Mr Shue again called for volunteers.

'Alright guys, who's next? I know there are at least three of you who haven't gone. How about you, Sugar?' Sugar nodded happily as she got up from her seat and made her way to the performance area of the room and told Brad the piano player her song selection so he could accompany her.

Before she began to sing, like everyone else she said a brief few words to explain her assignment.

'So, I know a lot of you don't think I can sing very well, especially considering how I tanked my original audition earlier this year, but I think I've improved a lot,' she said, only partially lying, because she was always able to sing. 'Anyway, um, this song it...it always makes me think of my family, especially my parents, when I hear it. I hope you like it,' she said, nodding to Brad the piano player who began to play the accompaniment. A few bars later, she began to sing,

'_I'm five years old / It's getting cold / I've got my big coat on / I hear your laugh / And look up smiling at you / I run and run / Past the pumpkin patch / And the tractor rides / Look now - the sky is gold / I hug your legs and fall asleep / On the way home_'

Almost immediately after she started to sing, Brittany and Santana surreptitiously and almost imperceptively move closer together and thread their hands together as they listen to their daughter sing Taylor Swift's _The Best Day, _both with impossibly large, happy and proud smiles seemingly pasted on their faces.

'_I don't know why all the trees change in the fall / I know you're not scared of anything at all / Don't know if Snow White's house is near or far away / But I know I had the best day / With you today_'

As she came to the chorus, the two girls joined in with the rest of the glee club by bobbing their heads back and forth in time with the music, whilst snuggling closer together as they listened to their daughter's song, overcome with pride and love.

'_There is a video / I found from back when I was three / You set up a paint set in the kitchen / And you're talking to me / It's the age of princesses and pirate ships / And the seven dwarfs / __Mommy__'s smart / And you're the prettiest lady in the whole wide world / Now I know why all the trees change in the fall / I know you were on my side / Even when I was wrong / And I love you for giving me your eyes / Staying back and watching me shine / And I didn't know if you knew / So I'm taking this chance to say / That I had the best day / With you today_'

By the time she sang the last verse and chorus, tears were streaming down Santana's face which she was furiously attempting to wipe away, and Brittany was tenting her fingers in front of her face in an attempt to hide her '_I'm-so-happy-I'm-crying-and-that-makes-sad-so-I'm-frowning-but-I'm-actually-really-happy_' face as she listened to her – no, _their_ – daughter sing. The fact that she replaced all references to 'Daddy' with 'Mommy' in her version did not escape their notice, either, but they hoped that the others wouldn't notice. And judging as they did from a quick and surreptitious glance around the room and seeing many similar reactions amongst the New Directions, they hoped it was the case. It was so beautiful and they were so proud of their daughter, and they loved her so much, even if they'd only had her for a little over a month.

As soon as she had finished singing the room erupted with applause and Santana and Brittany both rushed, nearly running, to where their daughter stood and engulfed her in a tight, powerful hug, and they were followed not far behind by Kurt and Mercedes.

'I love you so much, Mijita,' Santana whispered in Sugar's ear just loud enough so only she and Brittany could hear it.

'So do I,' Brittany echoed, also just loud enough to be heard by her daughter and her girlfriend. 'And your song was so beautiful. You're so talented, that was amazing. I'm so proud of you, baby girl'

Then, though all three girls wanted the private family embrace to last a bit longer, both Brittany and Santana immediately pulled away from Sugar, wiping the tears from their eyes and pasting big smiles on their faces, to allow the others who had come to hug and congratulate her to be able to do so.

'Ohmygod, Sugar,' Kurt was saying as he hugged her so powerfully he lifted her lithe frame off the ground momentarily. 'That was so good, how did you not sing like that from the beginning? We could have been...it was...just...wow, so amazing,' he was saying. He was so impressed that he was apparently so frazzled he couldn't quite finish forming coherent sentences. And for somebody like Kurt who was never at a loss for words, that meant something.

'I don't know, just nervous, I guess,' Sugar said shyly.

'Well don't be, girl,' Mercedes was saying, 'and uh-uh, no more of this shy, nervous, business,' Mercedes said. 'At least not in here, now that we know what you can do. You are the first and only white girl to make me like a T-Swift song, ever,' she was saying. 'How come you didn't sing like that when the Trouble Tones were still around?'

'I...I didn't want to step on anybody's toes'

'Well, maybe you should have, because damn girl, that was awesome,' Mercedes said again.

'I agree,' Mr Shue said, clapping his hands. 'Sugar, that was great. I had no idea...very well done. Come on, guys, give her another round of applause,' he said, still clapping his hands, and the rest of glee club followed his lead.

'I have to say,' Rachel said from her usual spot with her usual pretentious voice, 'I have to applaud you especially Sugar, because I can't imagine how hard it must be singing a song like that that reminds you of your parents...'

'Rachel...,' Mr Shue and Kurt warned nervously, after seeing Santana's eyes narrow dangerously, and knowing how this situation was going to play out before it happened.

'...especially when you're staying with Santana...,' she continued.

'Rachel, mind your own damn business,' Quinn was telling her, with a nervous sense of urgency in her voice.

'...because you are having problems at home. It must be so difficult, brava, brava,' Rachel finished, completely oblivious to the problem she had just caused herself.

'RACHEL, SHUT THE FUCK UP!' Brittany yelled, surprising most of the New Directions who had rarely heard the blonde raise her voice, let alone violently swear at any other living creature. Santana, of course, was in Rachel's face within the blink of an eye.

'Listen to me very well, Dwarf. If you say one more word about Sugar's living situation I will break that fucking beak of a nose of yours in three places and then string you up by your entrails. Do I make myself perfectly clear?'

'I...' Rachel began to speak but was cut off by Santana.

'Shut up. Don't talk, Just nod your head to tell me understand. Do you understand?' She asked, and Rachel nodded her head up and down emphatically. 'Good. Now apologise to Sugar'

'I'm sorry, Sugar,' Rachel said.

'Its okay, Rachel'

'Thanks'

'Now, apologise to me'

'I...I'm sorry, Santana.'

'Its okay, Rachel. I know sometimes you don't think before you speak. Just don't let it happen again, or you know what happens.' She said as she made her way back to her seat and Rachel gulped audibly before returning to hers.

Mr Shue chose that moment to intervene and nip in the bud any more...excitement for the time being by calling for the next person to go.

'Puck, how about you? You haven't gone yet'

'No...that's ok, Mr Shue'

'Puck...come on, the girls are showing you guys up here, come on and defend your honour,' Mr Shue said, jokingly.

'No...no, that's okay Mr Shue. I...I don't think I want to...'

'It was an assignment, Puck, everyone has to perform _something_,' Mr Shue said, a bit disappointed.

'Well, I didn't! God damn!' Puck said, storming out of the choir room as he did, flipping a music stand over, causing sheet music to go flying everywhere, as he did.

'What was that about?' Mr Shue mused out loud as he stared at the door where Puck's disappearing back no longer was.

Most people mused the same thing or gave non-committal sounds as answers.

'I think I've got this, Mr Shue,' Santana said, she and Brittany leaving the choir room to track down Puck. They caught up with him halfway down the corridor as he lay fist after fist into random lockers.

'Hey, Puckerman! What the fuck!' Santana began.

'Oh, fuck off, Lopez,' he said as he punched another locker.

'That's not what I asked, Puckerman. What the fuck is your problem back there?'

'None of your god-damned business,' Puck said.

'Actually, I think it is my business, Puck,' she said deliberately keeping her voice calm and not angry. 'See, we're kind of part of a team, and for whatever reason Shue set us this assignment for a reason and you and I both know that he usually has some kind of method to his madness. So there's probably a reason he wants you to sing about family, just like why he wanted me, or Irish, or anyone else. But more importantly,' she said backing up against the locker and sliding down until she was sitting on the floor and hugging her knees, and beckoned Puck and Brittany to do the same, 'We're friends, Puck. You and I have been friends for a long time, even before glee club, so I would hope that you would be able to tell me if something was going on with you,' she said, in an uncharacteristically kind way of telling him off.

'How the fuck am I supposed to sing about family, Santana? You know what my family is? My mom who is never around cos she has to work two jobs to support me and my kid sister, my sister who hates my guts, and my no-good deadbeat dad who didn't give two shits about any of us and ran out on us when I was ten years old. What the fuck am I supposed to sing about?'

'We all have problems with our families, Puck,' Brittany said softly, speaking for the first time. 'Nobody's family is perfect, but we've still got each other as our own glee family...' she began before she was cut off by Puck.

'That's easy for you to say, Brittany, you have not one, but two families who love you! How the fuck do you think you can speak about something you don't know?'

'Hey, Puck, watch your tone,' Santana said meaningfully.

'I don't need you to defend my honour, Santana,' Brittany said meaningfully. 'I am perfectly capable of defending myself you know,' she continued, adding, 'even though I like letting you do it, I am perfectly capable of fighting my own battles.' She turned to Puck and spoke harshly, but not unkindly, 'You have no right to speak to me that way, Puck. I'm your friend and I care about you, but when you talk to me that way, its bullying and I won't accept it. And its also wrong, and you are speaking about something you don't know anything about,' she added.

'What are you talking about Brittany?' Puck asked, genuinely curious now.

'Why the hell do you think I am _living_ with Santana, Puck? I don't mean spending so much time there I might as well live there, I mean, I have my own key, I do grocery shopping there, I sleep in Santana's bed every night. Or should I say, _our_ bed. We _live_ together, in her house. Do you have any idea why?' she asked, and quickly smiled reassuringly at Santana to let her know that that was not, in fact, a bad thing. 'Yes, part of it is because we're eighteen and we can, and we love each other and want to take that step to build our lives together...but do you wonder why now? Why our _senior year_, when I should be living at home with my oh-so-loving family and spending as much time with my baby sister as I can whilst I still can because I'm still here and not at college with San? Did you ever think about that, Puck?'

'I...no, I...I didn't even...'

'You're god-damned right you didn't think, Puck. Well I'll tell you why because apparently you need to hear this, even though I was hoping to keep this between just me and San for now, but I guess that's not possible anymore. My parents disowned me, Puck! They disowned me and kicked me out of my house when I came out to them. For being gay, for doing nothing wrong...the only thing "wrong" I did was be myself, and love Santana, and now my parents disowned me. You think that's loving? You think that's fair? You think that I don't know what its like to hurt? Huh, Puck? Fucking tell me, because I sure as hell would love to not have to feel like this whenever I think about them anymore!' Brittany said, working herself up into a small, tear-filled rage, which would have shocked almost anyone else in glee club except for the two other people present, or Mike Chang, who were the only people who knew her well enough to have ever seen her raise her voice or get angry before. Her real friends, in other words. She continued,

'And Santana's family might approve of us, thankfully, except for her Abuela who treats her as if she was dead, and hurts her so much because they used to be so close. And what for? Because we happen to be two girls who fell in love with each other. And her parents? Whilst they do love and support her...they're never around. Ever. Where are your parents going to be for Christmas this year, San?' she asked her girlfriend, in order to prove her point.

'Sudan'

'See? On Christmas, her parents will be in SUDAN. Santana hasn't seen her parents on Christmas since we were twelve years old. And overall she sees her parents maybe two or three weeks per year. That's it. Do you think that is a good family relationship with good memories, Puck? Jesus Christ, you aren't the only one with a shitty home situation! I mean, fuck, Quinn's dad divorced her Mom when you knocked her up! I bet you didn't even know that, did you?'

Puck just looked shell shocked, and slowly shook his head in the negative.

'Look, I'm not saying that your homelife isn't shitty, Puck. Or that ours necessarily is. I think Santana and I have done a lot to grow together and create our own home, and our own homelife that we enjoy immensely,' she said, reaching over Puck to lace her fingers with Santana's, who was sitting on the opposite side of Puckerman, and brought their interlocked fingers to her lips to kiss them briefly before she continued,

'And I think Quinn is happier now, too, that her dad isn't controlling her mother's or her life anymore, either. You're more than entitled to feel the way you feel about your family life, but if the rest of us can do this assignment without throwing a hissy fit like you did back there, you should as well'

'You haven't'

'But I will,' Brittany said. 'In fact, if it makes you feel better, I'll even go first. But if I do, then you have to as well. Promise?' She asked, standing up from her position and helping Santana up from the other side of Puckerman.

'Deal.'

When the three of them returned to the choir room, which during the course of their conversation, returned to a low, nervous hum of conversation, the choir room fell completely silent as Puck returned to his seat and Brittany moved to the centre area of the room to perform.

'Mr Shue, we've had a nice conversation with Puck, and he's promised to perform his song after I perform mine,' she said. 'And so, a deal's a deal.' She told Brad the piano player what song she wanted to sing, and also grabbed Sam by his wrist to help her, thrusting an acoustic guitar in his hands, saying 'Could you play accompaniment too, please, Sam?'

Sam nodded the affirmative, slightly confused by what was going on, and she told him what song she would be singing and he sat down on a stool waiting for her to give him the ok.

'Before I start, though, I want to explain my choice a bit. I had...I had wanted,' she said, taking a deep, shuddering breath to steady her nerves as best she could, before continuing, 'I had wanted to keep this just between me and Santana for a little while, but I guess now is actually as good a time to tell you guys as any. This is something kind of bad, and it's been hurting, for a while now, and I guess I can't put off telling you that much longer anyway, so, here goes: When I told my parents about Santana and I...they disowned me. They called me lots of horrible names and gave me ten minutes to collect all my things, and then kicked me out of the house forever,' she said, furiously wiping away at the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. Santana had made to get up and comfort her, but Brittany waved her down. This was something she had to get off her chest, and something she had to do for herself.

'Which is why I've been living with Santana since then. Santana and I have been officially "living together" with all that entails, you know, the whole starting to "build a life together" and all that jazz, since the end of last summer. And, as much as I love having this domestic life with Santana, it hurts, so much to think that my parents who until this happened, I had thought were the most caring, loving, decent people in the whole world, could be so cruel to me. To their own daughter, for no other reason than for falling in love with Santana, and her loving me back. And that is why I'm so glad I joined glee. That I have you guys. You know, all my life, everyone – with the exception of Santana – told me I was stupid, and that I wouldn't amount to anything. They told me so much that I even started to believe it.

And then I joined this club. This amazing, stupid, club with a bunch of dancing nerds, with my best friend,' she said, smiling through her tears, 'and I learned that it was okay to be different. It was okay to be the special unicorn who I am. In here, we not only said it was okay to be different and ourselves, but we celebrate that fact, every day, with every performance. In here I learned it was okay that I thought in pictures instead of words like most people, or that I believed in Santa Claus and leprechauns, or that I found both boys and girls attractive, but fell in love with a girl. It didn't matter. It was all just part of who I am, and what makes me, me, and that it was not only okay, but special and wonderful. You taught me to be myself, and more importantly, to believe in myself and have the strength and confidence to follow my dreams. And now, because of that – because of this club – I am happily living with the girl of my dreams, who just happens to also be my best friend, and we're going to college together next year, when so many people told me I'd never even graduate high school, and I'm confident, and sure of myself, and I'm not afraid to speak my mind or be who I am on the inside. My unicorn is running free, and its all because of this silly club,' she said, tearing up, again wiping the tears furiously from her cheeks, as pointless as it may have been. 'And each and every one of you in this room is a part of that. Every person in here has helped me on this path and on my way. Granted, some perhaps have been more important than others,' she said, her gaze lingering on Santana and she winked at Sugar, 'but as far as I am concerned, you are all my family. Each and every person in this room is family to me, and I love you all dearly. And because of this, I chose the song that I'm going to sing for you now, and hope that it will help me better say the things I can't say in words. I hope you like it,' she finished, nodding to Sam who began to softly pluck the guitar,

'_It's hard for me to say the things / I want to say sometimes / There's no one here but you and me / And that broken old street light / Lock the doors / We'll leave the world outside / All I've got to give to you / Are these five words tonight_'

She alternated between looking in the faces of all the people in the room she loved, and closing her eyes, to focus on the emotion she wanted to pour into the song – a technique she had learned from Mercedes and Santana – throughout the song. When she came to the chorus, she again opened her eyes, and with tears streaming down her eyes, she made sure to make eye contact with everyone in the room, but making sure said eye contact lingered just a little bit longer on the most important people in the room: Sugar and Santana.

'_Thank you for loving me / For being my eyes / When I couldn't see / For parting my lips / When I couldn't breathe / Thank you for loving me / Thank you for loving me_'

Four and a half minutes later, when she had finished singing, she opened her eyes again, wiped the tears from her eyes and was almost immediately engulfed in hugs by every member of the glee club, even including Mr Shue and Puckerman. But of course the best, longest, and most important hugs were saved for last, and came from her girlfriend and her daughter, though she did appreciate all the hugs, and compliments as well as the commiserations for her situation from all the other members of glee as well. Eventually, after the commotion had settled down, she rejoined her girlfriend in their seats at the back of the choir room.

'Well, Puck, as hard as that is to follow,' they eventually heard Mr Shue say, 'I guess you're up' and Puckerman begrudgingly but dutifully made his way to the centre of the room, grabbing the guitar out of Sam's hands, and proceeded to sing a hauntingly beautiful version of Joe Cocker's rendition of _With a Little Help from My Friends_. The Pierce-Lopez girls really did love his interpretation and tried very hard to pay attention and be fully present for his performance, but the fact of the matter was that they were all just so emotionally drained that all they wanted to do was go home, spend some family time together and go to sleep. They did participate in the supposed 'dancing' to the song that started at some point during the song, though none of them could tell who had started it. By the end of Puck's performance, however, they were all slowly weaving together in what would be best described as something halfway between a group hug and a show circle. As far as dancing goes, it was terrible, but, as far as group bonding was concerned, it was great, and everyone felt happy and rejuvenated, and also a little drained, after the fact, the Pierce-Lopezes included. After glee, instead of hanging around with the others and chatting as they usually did, they left immediately and went straight to Santana's car in the carpark and, from there, went straight home.

* * *

In the car on the way home Sugar was very quiet. Unusually so, as she was usually a talkative, hyperactive ball of energy, and even when she was exhausted or emotionally drained, she usually was able to carry on conversations of some length. However, on the drive home from school that day, Sugar didn't say a word to either of her mothers, nor did she sing along to the radio, and simply stared out the window, silently, as they drove.

As soon as they arrived home and were inside the house, she kicked her shoes off, and loudly ran up the stairs to her room and slammed the door.

'Well, that was bound to happen eventually,' Santana said. 'She was awfully quiet in the car'

'I think I know what this is about,' Brittany said, sighing heavily. 'I'm going to go try to talk to her'

'What do you think its about?' Santana asked.

'Well, do you remember when she first told us how she got here, and how she was sad because my Dad was dead, and they were really close?' Brittany asked, rhetorically, and Santana nodded. 'Well, imagine how she must feel now, to learn about what's happened. I mean, if she had any relationship at all with him, let alone a close one, something must happen in the future for us to reconcile, and she must not have known about the situation now...and now to find out about that, the way she did – I mean, we didn't even have the decency to tell her first. And I know we were trying to preserve her innocence and we have no idea how we're supposed to deal with something like that, but...she probably thinks we lied to her, or something. She probably hates me for telling her what happened at the same time and same way I told everyone else...and I don't really blame her. I need to talk to her.'

'Do you want me to come with?' Santana asked

'No, I think this is something that has to be between me and her,' Brittany said, her voice laced with both concern and determination.

'If you need help, call me,' Santana said, smiling wanly as her girlfriend turned to go to Sugar's room.

When Brittany approached the door to Sugar's room – which had recently been adorned with a plaque that read _Sugar's Room_ surrounded by animals and flowers, as well as a poster that parodied the FCC's parental warning label and read _Parental Advisory: Keep Out_ that they had purchased at the mall the previous week – she heard the sound of muffled sobs coming from inside. Breathing deeply to calm her nerves, she knocked on the door, but receiving no reply, tried turning the knob. It was locked. She knocked again, but louder.

'Go away!' was the reply that came from inside the room.

'Sugar, honey, please let me in, I want to talk to you'

'Leave me alone!'

'Sugar...,' she tried again, her voice soft and concerned. 'I really think we need to talk about this'

'GO AWAY'

Brittany squinted her eyes shut to keep the tears from falling. Who knew such little words could hurt so much. But this was her daughter, of course words like that coming from her would cut her deeper than anything, especially because it was her fault that her daughter was so angry, and so hurt, in the first place, and that broke her heart more than anything. Taking a deep breath, she placed her back to her daughter's bedroom door and slid down it until she was sitting and holding her knees, in a very similar way to what she did earlier that day with Puck at the lockers in the corridor.

'Sugar, please let me in. I need to talk to you, and I'm not leaving until I do and until you have at least heard and understand what I need to tell you. So, you have two options. Either you can let me in and we can have a face-to-face conversation, or you can keep this door locked, and I am going to sit here, and talk and you'll have to just listen through this door, all night, until I'm satisfied you understand. Its your choice.'

After a few moments, she heard her daughter's sobs slow and eventually quieten down to small sniffles – _thank God for small miracles_, she thought to herself – and heard Sugar moving around inside her room, until eventually she heard the small, soft _click_ of the lock mechanism on the door coming undone. Slowly, Brittany stood up and opened the door, closing it softly behind her as she entered Sugar's room. What she saw when she entered the room broke her heart yet again: her daughter was lying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, her mascara running in tracks down her cheeks, and her pillowcase wet from tears; her book bag was thrown haphazardly against the far wall, when she was usually so neat and tidy, and the photo that she and Santana had found recently of them both, with both their families which was taken after their first Regionals win last year – the last time they had all been together, including families, and after they had already been not-so-secretly-but-still-in-the-closet dating for at least a year; her and Santana embracing, faces flushed with victory and endorphins in the middle, and flanked on either side by their parents, all smiling, proud and happy – and had given Sugar upon her request was taken out of its frame, and her mother and father had been ripped out of the picture and cast aside violently. It broke her heart to tiny bits to see.

She approached the edge of Sugar's bed and slowly sat down near the edge, and motioned for her daughter to sit up and join her. Sugar did as she was bidden. Brittany took a deep breath to steady her nerves and collect her thoughts, but before she could begin to speak, Sugar spoke,

'Is it true?,' she asked, her voice sounded as if it reflected the very breaking of her heart as she spoke. The despair in her daughter's voice clenched at Brittany's heart strings and made it feel as if her heart were being trampled on by a herd of stampeding wildebeests, like in the Lion King.

'Yes'

'Then...but...why...Grandpa David...I don't...why...I don't understand...' Sugar managed to force out, but her head was filled with so many competing and conflicting questions and challenges that all demanded answers and reassurance, that she was unable to string any single one of them together cogently to create a coherent question. In the end, she simply began to sob again, burying her head in Brittany's neck. Brittany for her part, simply held her and brushed her hair and back soothingly with her hands, and let her daughter cry, whispering soothing sounds in her ear to comfort her as best she could. Eventually her tears stopped again and her sobbing was again reduced to mere sniffles, and she pulled away, and looked her mother in the eyes and said, in an innocent way that affected Brittany the way only a question from your own child can,

'I just don't understand.'

'Well, Sweetheart, I am going to try to explain, as best I can. And I'll happily answer all your questions, but I need you to try to let me explain first, okay?'

Sugar just nodded.

'First, let me apologise. We should have told you. We should have told you first, in private, as a family, and not let you find out the same way the rest of glee did. Its just, when you first told us about how you managed to get yourself sent to the past, and how sad you were at his passing and how close you were, I felt..._we_ felt...we decided that we didn't want to spoil your innocence and have you, well..do anything like this,' she said, chuckling as she picked up the two parts of the now ripped photo.

'Keep in mind that we had just really discovered who you really were as well, and we were – and still are, really – trying to figure out this whole "being a parent" thing, and let me tell you, for future reference, its a lot harder than it looks. And mostly we're just going by instinct here. So we didn't really know what to do, and whilst we're learning pretty quick, I think and are pretty good at being the parents you know us to be, and need us to be, even after a month...its not easy and sometimes we make mistakes. This was one of them.

See, by the way you talked about him, and how you told us what a strong relationship you had, we knew that in the future-slash-past, he must do something to reconcile with us. And given how awful what he did was and how hurtful it was it must be something, because I mean, just...,' she said, trailing off, waving her hands, flustered, unable to put words to her emotions and hoping her daughter would understand. Sugar, for her part seemed to understand and was nodding slightly. Brittany continued,

'But clearly, he must have done at some point, either before you were born, or immediately after, or something, because there is no way in hell that I would let that man anywhere near you if he was anything but 100 percent supportive of your Mami and I being together, and us building a life and a family together. There is absolutely no way I would let anyone who had any kind of hatred or bigotry of any kind – but especially bigotry towards the beautiful love your Mami and I share, and in which you were-slash-will be concieved and raised – anywhere near you, my sweet baby girl,' she said as she and Sugar both shifted positions slightly to be more comfortable on the edge of the bed, and Brittany rubbed small circles on her daughter's back as she spoke. She continued,

'So you have to understand, based on the way you talked about your Grandpa David, all those criteria must have been met, somehow, at some point either before you were born or immediately thereafter. And so we thought to ourselves that we didn't want to spoil your innocence or to somehow tar the beautiful memories you had of your grandfather, because for you, your entire life, he _was _that guy, that kind, generous man you knew and loved – who _I _knew and loved and thought he was for most of my life – and we didn't want to take that from you. Should we have maybe taken the time to explain things to you and show and explain how often times life is much more complex than they seem? Probably. But you also have to remember that we had hoped to keep this just between your Mami and I for as long as we could – certainly much longer than we did – but because of Puckerman's hissy fit today, that sort of spoiled that. But please, Sugar, remember that whilst for you you have fifteen years of your life to base things on...for your mother and I, this happened seven months ago. It is still very raw and painful to think and talk about, and I really hated doing it today, but it had to be done.'

'I just don't understand why you couldn't have told me, first. I'm your daughter, Mommy, why do I have to find out with the rest of glee club?' Sugar asked, pointedly, sounding like she was on the verge of tears. With her free hand, Brittany took Sugar's in hers and squeezed it reassuringly.

'I know. I know, Sugar Baby, and I'm so sorry. I know an apology isn't going to fix it, but I hope that you can forgive me, at least eventually. I should have told you first, but it all kind of just happened so fast, and it wasn't something we planned on, like I said earlier, and I just...,' she paused, taking a deep breath, 'I need you to know that we didn't do anything purposely to hurt you. Neither your mother nor I would ever, EVER do that. We both love you so much and the last thing we want is to hurt you. You do know that right?'

Sugar nodded slowly and jerkily at first put eventually responded,

'Yes'

'Good. And you know that we did not now, nor will we ever, deliberately hide things or lie to you like this to hurt you, right? That we are your mothers and we have nothing but your best interest at heart, and that if there ever is a time when we might hide something from you, there is probably a good reason behind it?'

'Yes'

'And you understand why what happened today happened the way it did? That we were not trying to hurt you at all and we were just trying to find out the best way to tell you, in our own way, without stealing what is left of your innocence?'

'Yes'

'Do you...accept my apology?'

After a short deliberation, but what felt to Brittany like centuries had passed, Sugar replied,

'Yes'

'Good, now come here kiddo and give me a hug and a kiss,' Brittany said as she let out a breathy sigh of relief she didn't realise she was holding and grabbed her daughter into a bone-crushingly fierce hug.

'I love you, Mommy,' Sugar said, as she returned the hug, tears – but this time of happiness – pooling in her eyes and threatening to spill over.

'I love you too, Sugar Bean. And so does your Mami. More than you could possibly imagine. And I'm sure your Grandpa David did-slash-does, too. All we need to do is wait for him to come around, and I have you to thank for that information, baby girl. For these past seven months, I hated him, so much for the pain he put me and your Mami through, for turning on his own flesh and blood like that. But when you started talking about him the way you did, I knew – I knew, because my own standards of what would have to happen, like I already told you – that he will make ammends and we'll reconcile and I'll have my parents back. And it makes me so happy to know that someday we'll all be a family again, even though they way they are currently treating us hurts so much and makes me very angry, and sometimes I still hate them, just a little bit. But I know that it won't always be that way, so please don't take this out on your grandfather. Or at least, your memories of him. The grandfather you knew and loved will always be that same man – now, he's just...a little more complicated, okay? This was one of the reasons I didn't want to tell you in the first place. Promise me, Sugar. Please, promise me.'

'I promise, Mommy'

Brittany smiled so broadly it could have powered the electric for the rest of the evening.

'Thank you, baby girl. Thank you,' she said, pulling away from her daughter – who had been curled into her side ever since she was released from the hug – slightly, and kissed her on the forehead. 'Now, come on, let's get you and this room cleaned up a bit before we go downstairs'

* * *

All that week Santana was still conflicted about what to do about Sugar's request to meet her Bisabuela. She and Brittany had talked about it a lot since she had asked about it, and they had come to the conclusion that they were completely unsure. Brittany, for her case, was of the opinion that she didn't think it would do any good, for her to meet Sugar, because she was far too old and set in her ways for it to make any difference; but she loved Santana and Sugar and only wanted them to be happy, and she told Santana that if she thought that it might help to mend the relationship between her and her Abuela if she met Sugar, she was all for it. In the end, they decided, that the final decision would be up to Santana – the old bat was her grandmother, after all – and that Brittany would support her, whatever that decision was.

And so, she found herself somewhere she rarely went, especially since the problems with her Abuela after she came out. She was in church. It wasn't that she went to pray for guidance or any of that rubbish that religious weirdos believed in; yes, she believed in God but she didn't think that going to church meant she and God were having some kind of magical conversation and that he was going to somehow give her the answer in the middle of mass. But at the same time, it gave her time to think. And her cousin Oscar also happened to be the parish priest, and he always gave her good advice. And it was with that goal in mind that she was going to confession at the Church of Santa Maria de Gracia on Saturday afternoon.

'Perdoname Padre, porque he pecado,' she said quietly as she sat in the confessional with her rosary, which she did still use on occasion. 'It has been seven months since my last confession'

'Tell me your sins, my Child, that you may be absolved'

'Oscar, I need your advice'

'You know if you need advice you can just call me, right, Santana? I mean, this is a confessional for Christs' sake!'

'You're not supposed to say that! Especially not in here...'

'And you're not supposed to use my confessional as a therapists office, but there you go'

'Aw, come on, Oscar, its not like there are people lining up around the block to go to confession. Its mid-day Mass on Saturday,' Santana said. 'And besides, I like getting advice in here, it feels likes it got more...oomph...ya know?' She added lamely. Her cousin Oscar could hardly argue with that, but then again, he kind of had to. He was a Priest, after all.

'Fine, but in that case, you have to at least give an actual confession, too. I know that your Abuela turned you off of the Church, especially after what happened when you told her about you and Brittany – which, by the way, I think you two are beautiful together,' he added. The Church may be against gay unions, but Fr. Oscar had seen how his cousin and her girlfriend interacted and he saw how happy they made each other. Love like that, he was convinced, could come only from God. He continued, 'But I know that you still believe in God, and God loves us all, regardless of whether we believe in the Church or not.'

'Fine, Oscar. But only because its you,' Santana said begrudgingly. 'Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been seven months since my last confession,' she repeated the phrase she had memorised by rote by the time she was five, crossing herself.

'Tell me your sins, my Child, that you may be absolved'

'I have lied, more times than I can remember, to help and protect my friends and family,' Santana said. She then told Oscar about her dilemma, and the whole situation around it, including both Sugar's true heritage as well as the lie they concocted to throw people off, the incident with her Abuela in the market, the family song assignment in glee, and how much lying about her Grandfather David had hurt Sugar, and all the other background that was relevant. Sometimes he asked questions to clarify, but mostly he just listened, waiting until her story had finished.

'...And now she wants to meet Abuela, and I know part of it just for her own curiosity because she wants to meet this woman and when is she going to get another chance to do so, after all, I mean its not every day you travel back in time to meet your parents as teenagers, right? And I get it, I do. But I also know part of it she wants to try to use her existence as a way to try to come to some reconciliation between us, and I don't know if that's possible. I mean, you know what she's like, Oscar. And I don't know what to do'

'Yes, your Abuela is very stuck in her ways. Especially when it comes to gays and lesbians and such,' he said, heavily sighing. 'And its really unfortunate, because I see it a lot in the older generations, and they base it on the Bible and claim that its the pious thing to do. And as a Catholic Priest I can't tell them they're wrong, as such, because that is official Church Doctrine – for now, hopefully that will change with a new Pope – but as an individual, I can't agree with it at all. It goes against my entire understanding of what Jesus was about. Jesus' message was, at its heart, about Love. That's it. Love thy neighbour, love thy enemy, turn the other cheek. The meek shall inherit the earth. All of these things relate, in the end, to one basic principle: love each other. And yes, there are a few passages in the bible that some interpret to be anti-homosexual, but those are in books that were written by men, and more importantly, they are in the Old Testament, which also forbids eating pork or shellfish or wearing clothes of two different fabrics, but not only allows slavery but dictates what fair prices are for selling your virgin daughter. As Christians, we believe that when Jesus died for us, all those old prohibitions fell away because of His Passion. And yet, we still have dinosaurs like your Abuela banging their head against the wall about these things and claiming they are being pious. For me being cruel to your fellow human – let alone your own flesh and blood – because of the way God made them is the exact opposite of being pious, and I pray for you both every night,' he said.

'Thank you, Oscar. Or should I say Father?'

'Either one is fine, Santana. And it really is a shame your Abuela doesn't seem to want to be a part of yours and Brittany's lives, because I have only seen you two together a handful of times – at least as a couple, that is – and even I can tell that the love that you two have for each other...it can only come from God'

'Oscar, that is so sweet of you to say,' Santana said softly, and meaning it. 'Sometimes I wonder what I did to get so lucky to have such an amazing girl in my life. Not only as a best friend, but that when I fell in love with my best friend, that she fell in love with me too and loves me back almost as much as I love her. And sometimes I think that it must be some kind of miracle from God that I got so lucky. Oscar, she's...she's my alma gemela'

'Maybe it is. But you shouldn't sell yourself so short, either, Santana. You're a great person, too, and any girl would be lucky to have you. Brittany is a lucky girl. I just wish I could do more, publicly, you know? Like marry you when the time comes, or baptise Sugar when she is born and we get her the second time around and all that. But a lot of that will depend on Church doctrine. Just know that, whatever happens, personally I've got your back amd support you, no matter what. Even if I can't do so as a Priest.'

'Thanks, Cuz. I understand. And it really means a lot. Especially coming from you'

'I mean it. And as to your dilemma...at the end of the day, it really boils down to what you think is best for your daughter. Do you think she's better off meeting your Abuela, and all that comes with that, with the possible benefits of possibly being a catalyst for reconciliation, and even if not, at least having her meet the woman who was such a huge influence on you...or do you want to keep her away from the possible hurt that will come from meeting her, but also in the dark about who this woman is?'

'It sounds like you're telling me to introduce them'

'No, Santana. I don't tell people what to do. I merely provide spiritual and moral guidance'

'Well, it sounds like you are _guiding_ me towards me letting Sugar meet her Bisabuela'

'At the end of the day, its what you think is best'

Santana sighed heavily.

'Ugh, I guess it wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen. And besides, I think I'd rather have them meet with me there, rather than having Sugar sneaking off to try to find her on her own, unsupervised...'

'You seem to have really gotten to know her well'

'She's my daughter, Oscar. Of course I do. I know she's only been here in this timeline since August, and we've only known for sure she was our daughter for a little over a month, but its already getting to the point where I'm having a hard time remembering what it was like not knowing about her, and not having her around,' she said, chuckling quietly to herself.

'Yep, you're definitely her mother,' Father Oscar said. 'And a good one at that. I have no doubts in my mind that whatever choice you make will be in her best interest'

She paused again for a few minutes to think before speaking again.

'Yeah, I guess it couldn't hurt for them to meet each other. Especially if me and Brittany were there too.'

'Excellent, Santana,' Oscar said. 'I could help you set it up, if you'd like. You know she and I are in contact regularly since she is very active with the Church as you know. Maybe you could do it here at the Church...'

'Well, we were planning on coming for Midnight Mass on Christmas,' Santana said slowly.

'That's perfect. Maybe we could arrange it for immediately after Midnight Mass? She'll be here anyway, I'm sure, and I could extend her an offer to stay late for...something. I dunno what, but I'll make up something for some kind of volunteer stuff with the Church or something, and convince her to stay a bit after Midnight Mass, and you can do it then,' he said, happy to help. 'And, I'd get to meet this little cousin of mine, as well, which would be a nice little benefit for me,' he added, and they both chuckled.

'Thanks, Oscar. I'll see you on Christmas,' Santana said, making as if to leave the confessional box.

'Wait, Santana! Aren't you forgetting something?'

'What?'

'Your confession, my Child,' Oscar said, in his best "Priest Voice".

'Oh, right. Yeah,' Santana said. Oscar cleared his throat and made the sign of the cross as his cousin sat back down in the confessional booth.

'Lying is a grievous sin, my Child,' he began. 'But protecting one's family and children, and helping those in need is, on the other hand, a great virtue. As penance for your sins, I would ask that you say two Hail Mary's, one Our Father, and donate one evening of your time to a soup kitchen or other charity of your choice in order to continue Our Lord Jesus' example of Faith through Good Works. May your sins be wiped clean, in nomini patri, et filis, et spiritis sanctis. I absolve you of your sins in the name of Our Lord, Christ Jesus. Amen.'

'Amen. Praise be to God,' Santana said, crossing herself, before bidding her Priest-Cousin goodbye once more and leaving the confessional to go home and tell Brittany what she had decided.

**AN2: Songs used in this chapter are Leaving of Liverpool (traditional Irish, I used the High Kings' version as a basis for the writing); Durme, Durme (a traditional Ladino [Judeo-Spanish] lullaby, listen here: watch?v=awzYCrLqUKM, more about Ladino here: wiki/Judaeo-Spanish, more traditional, non-orientalised Ladino music here: #!new-music-page/c18cq and here: ); He Aint Heavy, He's My Brother (The Hollies); The Best Day (Taylor Swift – the one and only time I will ever use T Swift); Thank You For Loving Me (Jon Bon Jovi) and Get By (With a Little Help From My Friends) (The Beatles/Joe Cocker) **

**If I offended anyone with all the Catholic stuff, I apologise. I actually did a bit of research to make sure it was at least as accurate as it should/could be, and still fit the characterisation and story and stuff. But I also sort of felt it was a necessary place to go, for the story. You dont have to agree, but there it is. I also dont mean to offend anyone with it, I'm a secular agnostic Israeli, which means that I was raised nominally Jewish but never go to temple or do anything remotely related to religion. I went to a catholic church once, when I was dating an arab girl from jaffa, but it was all in latin and arabic so I couldn't follow what was going on, so I hope I get it close enough to at least ne somewhat realistic. **


	7. Chapter 7: Christmas, Part 1

**Author's Note: By this time you should know my standard, blanket disclaimers. So, this chapter is a long one. What can I say, I got inspired, and this is the result. I do my best in my writing, especially in this story, to explore more about the characters than we can do in the medium of television, and thus we write. That is, for me, part of the reason why fanfiction exists, and therefore, I try to explore characterisation as best I can with as many different situations, little mini 'episodes', if you will, plot twists, etc as I can to explore that. You'll see what I mean, I hope, when you read. I'm pretty happy with the result. I hope you don't think its weird that I did a Christmas chapter in September. Also, I'm an Israeli and I've never celebrated Christmas properly, and only exposed to it at all a few times in my life (once when I was dating a Christian girl from Jaffa and another time when I was living in Britain) so I don't get too much wrong. Where I wasn't sure about things, I checked with Professor Google, as best as I could. Happy reading! As always, Reviews Are Love, and if you have ideas/suggestions for some hijinks that you would like to see the Pierce-Lopezes and friends get into, let me know. I make no guarantees about including them, but I'm always open to ideas for what people want to see/hear/read. Also: AN#2 at the end.**

* * *

Chapter 7: Christmas, Part I

The Future: one week until Christmas

Over the past few weeks, things at the Pierce-Lopez house had been a flurry of controlled chaos as the two mothers and their daughters attempted to prepare for their first Christmas together as a family – well, in this timeline, anyway. They didn't think counting the Christmas that would come six years in the future when Sugar would be four months old counted, especially considering Brittany and Santana would have already had many Christmases together by then. So the holiday, which all involved already loved was that much more important this year.

They had already begun family traditions: they went as a family to collect a tree – a big, natural tree, not like the plastic and fibre-optic monstrosity Brittany's parents had last year, even though Brittany did like that the fibre-optic tree could be turned entirely pink – after which they went home and set it up, all by themselves, in the family room. Then they all drank instant hot chocolate with the little marshmallows in it whilst Brittany and Sugar sorted out the ornaments and decorations for the tree and the rest of the house, and Santana attempted, not completely unsuccessfully, to make her Abuela's buñelos. They also made Brittany's favourite Christmas cookies from her childhood: gingerbread people – Brittany didn't want to impose gender stereotypes on them needlessly by prematurely having them be gingerbread men or gingerbread women – and sugar cookies in the shape of Christmas trees and Stars of Bethlehem. And of course, there was lots of arts and crafts and music and decorations and a general sense of cheer that pervaded the house and everything the girls did. Even the squabbling between the members of the glee club and the fact that all of their teachers decided that because they were going to have three and a half weeks off for Christmas, that they should all set all their students homework, or the episodes with Santana's Abuela or Brittany's parents, or any of the inevitable arguments that Santana and Sugar seemed to have – quick, passionate, with lots of yelling, but equally quick to be forgiven and forgotten – didn't seem to dampen the spirits of any of the Pierce-Lopezes as the holiday drew nearer and nearer.

The Sunday before the were to go to school for their last Monday before Christmas holidays, they were all sitting down for a family dinner, as per another tradition that had seemed to develop since Sugar's arrival from the future. As they ate, Santana cleared her throat as if she had something important to say, to get her girlfriend's and daughter's attention, before speaking,

'Sugar, do you remember a few weeks ago when you asked if you could meet your Bisabuela?'

'Sí, Mami, I remember'

'English or Spanish, Sugar. No Spanglish at my table, please'

'But you use Spanglish all the time!'

'Not at home, I don't, and never at the dinner table. English or Spanish,' She reiterated, firmly but kindly.

'But Mommy doesn't speak Spanish'

'She understands better than she lets on, believe me, I learned that the hard way,' Santana said, her eyes laughing. 'She just doesn't speak it very well'

'Hey, I'm getting better!' Brittany protested, her tongue sticking out playfully at both her daughter and her future-wife.

'That's what happens when you let me be your private tutor,' Santana said, only partially suggestively. '

Ew, gross. Mommies, I'm trying to eat,' Sugar said, playfully. '

Can it, Mijita. You know as well as I do that you like it. Especially considering because if we weren't like this, you might not be here'

'I know...and I do, but if you ever bring it up and ask me when I'm back in my proper timeline, I'll deny it until I'm blue in the face.'

'Fair enough. But we've gotten off track. Anyway, you remember asking me if you could meet her?'

'Mhmm,' Sugar said, nodding, her mouth full of mashed potato.

'Well, your Mommy and I have been talking, and...we've decided that its only fair. Since she is your family, and this is going to be the only time you're probably ever going to get to meet her...it wouldn't be right for us to deny you,' she said, smiling indulgently at her daughter who had put down her cutlery and was smiling broadly, and apparently waiting for a lull in the conversation to say something. But she wasn't done, so the younger girl would have to wait,

'_But_,' she began, stressing that there was a caveat, 'don't get your hopes up for anything particularly happy or heart-warming. I am hoping just as much as you are that seeing you will help towards changing her ways, and maybe knowing that you are coming along in the not too far future will do something and maybe she'll fall in love with you instantly like we did, but...don't get your hopes up. I don't want you to get hurt, and she's a stubborn, bigoted old bat, and I'm only allowing this because both myself and your Mommy will be there the whole time, as well as Father Oscar, the Priest, who also happens to be your cousin. Or uncle? I dunno. He's my Tio's son, so he and I are first cousins which would make you...first cousins once removed? I think? I'm not sure, but I'm sure that he will. But yeah, basically, I want you to understand that whilst we are doing this because we feel that its only fair you at least get to meet her, I also want us to be clear that it will be with heavy supervision, mostly for your own good, and I really want to make sure that you know you can't get your hopes up about anything. Because I don't want anything to hurt you, ever, least of all that stubborn old cow.'

Sugar practically lept out of her chair and threw herself first at Santana and then at Brittany, grabbing them both in their turn into suprisingly tight bear hugs and nearly screaming into their ears, 'thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou,' so many times, with so much speed and force that it seemed to all run together into one word.

'You are more than welcome, Sugar Bean,' Brittany said indulgently. 'We love you, and want to see you happy, and if this makes you happy, then it makes us happy. Merry early Christmas, baby girl'

'Merry early Christmas, Mommy'

'Feliz Navidad, Mijita'

'Feliz Navidad, Mami'

After they had settled back into their respective spots around the table, Santana looked at the clock on the stove – since they had made a family rule of no phones at the dinner table – to see they were running late. They were going to meet some of their friends from glee at the mall to see a movie, and if they were going to meet them at the time they told them they would meet them, they would have to leave very soon. 'Oh crap, guys, hurry up and finish. We're going to be late. We've gotta meet Mike and Girl Chang and the others in like, 20 minutes,' Santana said. '¡Vamanos!' She added, tucking into her own plate with speed and fervour as Brittany and Sugar also did the same.

* * *

Later that evening Brittany and Santana sat quietly together on the sofa in the family room of what had very quickly become _their _home, admiring the tree whilst Sugar did her homework in her room.

'San,' Brittany asked quietly, breaking the comfortable silence they had been sitting in for the past ten minutes or so, 'Do you believe in the multiverse?'

'Which one is that again?'

'Its this idea that basically us, as we exist right now, is just one universe out of a countlessly infinite number of alternate universes, in which almost everything remains the same, but with a few, or possibly even one, key change, which could, theoretically change everything about the entire existence of that universe,' she explained. 'So like, in one of our universes, everything would be the same, except that I'd be a natural red-head, in another one we might both be fish,' she explained further, giggling slightly to herself at the idea of her and Santana being fish.

'Okay...' Santana replied, sort of understanding, but not quite sure if she really understood or not. But Brittany was pretty good at explaining things that she didn't understand so that she could, just like she was with Brittany when the roles were reversed. Santana figured it was just one of those things that happened when you knew someone for so long and loved them as thoroughly as they did each other.

'Its just fun to think about how one tiny difference could possibly change everything we know. Like, would everything still be the same if we were fish? Or if I were a red-head? Or if Sugar were a boy?'

'Yeah, I guess,' Santana said, finally thinking she understood. At least a little bit. 'I guess anything is possible, Britt'

'I think so, too,' Brittany agreed, and the fell into comfortable silence once more, as they drank their hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows. A few minutes later, however, Brittany spoke up again.

'Santana, do you think the versions of us in all the other universes are together?'

'Absolutely, Britt. I love you so much, I can't imagine any possible universe where that wouldn't be the case,' Santana said, grasping Brittany's hand in hers, and weaving their fingers together. For some reason, she got the feeling that Brittany was feeling a bit nervous, perhaps even timid about something and in need of reassurance, despite all that had happened and all they had done for each other over the past year. She didn't know how, or why, she was feeling this way, all she knew was that she was going to be loving and supportive and do everything she could to reassure her of just how much she loved her, even if she didn't understand where this unsurety was coming from

'Even if we were fish. I'm positive we'd still be together then, having lots of super hot fishy lady kisses and making lots of fish lady babies'

Brittany giggle-snorted at Santana's last comment about the fish babies.

'Even if you were a boy? Or if...I was a boy?'

'Even if you were a dog and I was a lizard, we'd still be as in love as we are right now,' Santana said emphatically. 'You are the only girl I have ever loved and the only girl, with the exception of our daughter, that I ever will love. In this or any other universe,' she said, looking deep into the blonde girl's eyes which were so deep and blue that they should be a cliché. 'I hope...I _need_ you to know that, Brittany'

'I do, Santana,' Brittany said. 'I definitely do know that, San. I just...I dunno, I guess I like hearing it more than others. Its stupid,'

'It is most definitely _not _stupid, Brittany,' Santana countered. 'Nothing you could say or do will ever be stupid because _you are not stupid_. You are a _genius, _Britt, and anyone who knows anything knows that. And I am more than happy to tell you, as much as you want, whenever you need' Santana said, before continuing. 'I hope to be able to tell you just how much I love you every day for the rest of our lives,' Santana said, softly admitting out loud for the first time what they had both known to be true for quite some time. 'Just as long as you tell me back,' she added, her voice still soft and tender.

'Always,' Brittany said, referencing the end of the Harry Potter books which happened to be one of the favourites of both girls. 'You're my Favourite Person, Santana, and I could never love anyone, girl or boy, the way I love you,' she added, lifting their linked hands with fingers entwined up to her lips and kissing her fingers lightly as she did so.

'San?' Brittany asked again, after a few more minutes of comfortable silence, which had been split up with lots of kissing.

'Hmm?'

'Do you think that in any of the universes we break up?'

'What? Why would you even ask that? Britt, is there...something you're trying to tell me...?' Santana asked, doing all she could to keep her voice from trembling.

'What? Oh god, no, Santana, no, never!' Brittany said, recovering quickly from the shock of Santana's response. 'Santana I just told you how much I love you...I would never...,' she said, fumbling for words for a moment before catching her stride. 'Its just that, knowing how much I love you, I want to know that if there is a version of us in any of the other universes that do ever break up...I hope...I want to know that they-slash-we find their way back to each other'

'That is probably the sweetest thing you've ever said,' Santana said, kissing her girlfriend briefly on her lips, before shifting her weight so that it forced her girlfriend down onto the sofa, allowing her to move more on top of her, kissing her again for a bit longer and more passion this time, before they separated, continuing, 'But I'm sure that they-slash-we,' she said, kissing Brittany yet again, 'would never ever break up in the first place, in any of the other universes,' she said, kissing her girlfriend passionately, and adjusting their weight yet again so that they were both in more comfortable positions with better access to each other without anyone being crushed, 'but if they-slash-we ever did, I'm positive that they-slash-we would find they're-slash-our way back to each other. I'm positive,' she said, kissing Brittany passionately yet again, and this time letting her hands wander more than they had previously, preferring to show her girlfriend how she felt, rather than tell her. Brittany certainly did not complain.

When they eventually pulled apart of each other, both girls' hair was dishevelled, clothes were mussed and makeup needed touching up, not even taking into account their heavy breathing, faster heart rates and the noticeable tingling each girl had in her lower regions. However, they both decided it shouldn't go much further, in case things got too hot and heavy and Sugar were to walk in on them.

After a few minutes of pleasant, but not altogether comfortable silence – due mainly to the sexual tension and desire to rip the other's clothes off then and there they were both experiencing – Santana spoke.

'Hey Britt?'

'Hmm?'

'You know how we always talked about being famous? And how we'd go to like, New York, or LA, or Chicago or something...some big, glamorous, open-minded city and work hard and pay our dues and eventually get discovered and be big, famous stars loved and worshipped by millions of adoring fans?'

Brittany giggled at the memory of what they had planned for their future, as well as the fact that they had been unwittingly doing just that – planning _their_ future – practically since the day they met when they were seven years old. And they had continued to do so all the way up to the present, when it was actually a reality, which sometimes seemed to one, or both, of them so surreal they could hardly believe it were true.

'Yes,' she replied happily.

'Well, don't hate me for this,' Santana said timidly, 'but I don't think I want that anymore'

'What do you mean?' Brittany asked, sitting up fully from her reclining position so she could more fully look at her girlfriend and pay fuller attention to what she had to say.

'Don't get the wrong impression, Britt,' she said quickly, 'I still want to "run away" with you,' she said, laughing at the term they had used with each other in secret before they were Out and Proud and together. She continued, 'Its just...I don't really care about all that other stuff anymore. I mean, I still want to run away with you to some amazing, glamorous, open-minded city...like New York, or maybe Boston, or Chicago. Or we could go to Europe! Yeah, we could move to London or something, even! We could go somewhere where people wouldn't know us, and where we'd be accepted for who we are and we'd be far, far away from this place...' she said, gaining steam but also realising she was starting to ramble so she pulled back her own reigns so to speak so that she could focus and say what she had originally been trying to say.

'Like, all that is still important to me. In fact, its the most important thing. So much so that like, it doesn't matter where we go anymore, as long as we're together. But...I don't care about performing, or being famous anymore. I'm totally over it, Britt'

'What brought this about, San? You love performing,' Brittany asked, slightly concerned.

'Oh, I do. I still love singing, and dancing, and performing, making people happy by putting on a good show, I still love it, but...I don't care about doing it professionally anymore. Or being famous. Or any of that,'; she said, emphatically.

'I started having this feeling at the end of last year, when we finally were able to be open about or relationship...like, I know this is going to seem really silly and cliché, but once I was able to have you – _really _have you and we were able to _really _be together – I stopped caring about being famous,' she said, smiling cutely as she blushed under her own words and the loving look they earned from Brittany.

'And then it just sort of growing and continuing over the summer, and then this year – when I'm seeing how crazy its making people like Kurt and Rachel, and even Mike Chang, even though he's got a smarter plan, and has been better prepared all along, he's still going nuts too. And I've been looking at them and I've been asking myself if that is the life I want for myself. And not just for myself, but for you and Sugar, too. Because whatever I do, is going to affect you as well,' She said. She continued,

'And I'm realising that that is no way to live. Especially now that we have Sugar, and know that she's going to be on her way in the next few years That's no kind of a life to provide for a child. I want our baby to have as stable, and warm, and loving, and craziness-free of a childhood as she possibly can, and you can't do that when one, or both, of us is trying to get our big break and become famous,' she said, continuing now that she was building to her "big finish".

'And, not only that, and again this might seem cheesy, and cliché and corny, but I don't care. I don't care about, or want, to be famous anymore. At least, not in that same way. I don't want or need millions of so-called adoring fans loving me from afar without ever getting to know who I really am. I don't want or need that, especially now that I know that so many of these people's personal lives are ruined by publicists or agencies trying to present a certain "image" – I mean what if they, whoever "they" might be, wanted to promote me as single and straight? I couldn't do that to you or our daughter. I don't want or need any of that. All I really want and need is the love of my best girls, who know and love the real me for who I really am,' she said, smiling broadly though her eyes were wet with unshed tears. 'And maybe to be well respected in whatever field I _do_ go into and being well-known for being good at whatever it is I wind up doing for a living. That's all the fame I'll ever need: "famous" for being a good wife and mother, and well respected in my career.'

'I know that you still love dancing, and you're really good at it too, Britt,' she said, continuing yet again hoping to get all of her thoughts and fears and concerns out in one go, 'And there's no reason that you shouldn't be able to pursue it if that's what you want, and I'll always be 100% supportive of you, and everything, I just...,' she said, beginning to ramble again, hoping she could get her girlfriend to understand.

Brittany just cut her off with a hearty laugh and a finger placed tactically on her lips to shush her, like in the movies.

'Santana, I'd given up on fame and a professional dancing career over a year ago. I've been over it for even longer than you have,' she said laughing.

'You did?'

'Yeah...I mean, I never really wanted to be a famous dancer anyway. I mean, you were the one who was always so set on being rich and famous, and I wanted to be close to you, and I do enjoy dancing and I am very good at it, that is true, so I just figured it was as good a career option as any,' she said, laughing happily at her girlfriend's dumbfounded expression.

'Being famous and stuff was just never all that important to me,' she said honestly. 'I mean, if a job offer falls in my lap, I'm not going to turn it down. And it would be cool to be able to get paid to dance – but not in a stripper sort of way – she added, laughing.'Well, except for you,' she hastily added, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. 'But I dunno, I could see myself teaching, or consulting on choreography for this thing or that thing occasionally, but I was never all that dead set on being famous, Santana, I thought you knew that. That's why I always focused so much more on helping you get there, because you wanted it so much more than I ever did and I just want you to be happy'

'Aww, Babe...' Santana began but Brittany held up her hand to indicate she wasn't finished talking. 'I mean, you remember when we were little, it was like every other year I wanted to be something else: a dancer, a princess, a national geographic photographer, a cowgirl, a computer programmer, an archaeologist...'

'Ah yes, the Indiana Jones years...your Halloween costumes those years were super hot,' Santana added, winking suggestively.

'Its too bad they're in storage at my parent's house,' Brittany said. 'I could probably still fit into them – after making some sexy adjustments that is,' she added coyly, before continuing, 'But you get the point, Santana. I was never so dead set on being famous, that was you. I'm like a cockroach, I can survive pretty much anywhere and figure out a way to get by...I was more worried about you,' she said softly. 'And its completely okay if you don't want that anymore. In fact, I think its actually pretty great. Its a very mature decision, I think, to realise that we're going to have to be able to provide a stable home for ourselves and our daughter, so we're going to need to figure out a way to do that...honestly I think I would much rather us just go to college together and try to figure it out as we go, from there, like most people, than have some kind of 20 year life plan all figured out already, like Rachel does. I mean have you _seen_ how crazy she's been getting lately? Its all NYADA this, NYADA that. If she doesn't get in, or she fails out or something, then what happens?' Brittany said, honestly.

Santana let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding, and hugged her girlfriend tightly. When she released her once again, she looked at her girlfriend and said honestly,

'Thank you'

'For what?'

'For everything'

They shared a smile, and no other words on the subject were needed to be said by either girl, they understood each other perfectly.

'Well,' Santana said, 'If we're not going to be famous performers, we should probably get college applications out soon, I think they're due like the month we get back from Christmas,' she said, giggling uncontrollably at the situation they now found themselves in.

'I think you're right, San,' Brittany said. 'But I've already got my applications mostly done, I just need to post them. And I've actually already gotten a letter from MIT – something about they received my SAT scores and want to discuss something with me. I don't even know how they got my scores, though, because I didn't send them...they keep talking in the letter about string theory or something, but I don't want to study art'

'Brittany...MIT is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, its all about the science-y stuff you love,' Santana laughed. 'Isn't string theory some kind of those weird quantum something or others you're always reading about but always goes straight over my head when you try explaining it to me?'

'Probably. I've never heard much about it though.' Brittany said.'So I should call them and set up an appointment?

'Yes! Brittany MIT is a great school, and its in Boston! Boston has tonnes of great universities that I could apply to, and so could you, just in case MIT falls through or something, and then there's New York, and Philadelphia, and a whole bunch of schools on the east coast that would be great for us...' Santana was saying, energised by the conversation. It was really happening. They were planning their futures, and discussing which universities in which city on the east coast _they_ would attend and where _they _would begin to build their post-Lima lives. This Christmas was going to be the best one yet.

'That sounds great San,' Brittany said. 'We can work on our applications over the holidays! But, San...what are you going to study?'

'You know what? I really don't know. And I don't really care. Isn't college when you're supposed to figure this stuff out? I'll just figure it out along the way, like everyone else,' she said.

'I think so, but I think you're still supposed to have some kind of idea going in'

'I see...well, I definitely _don__'__t_ want to be a doctor like my parents...I don't think my grades in biology are high enough to do it, anyway, even if I wanted to. I think...I think I want to do something to help other people, though,'

'Maybe psychology? You could be a therapist and help people with their problems'

'I dunno, Britt. Me, a shrink? I was thinking more like something along the lines of...a lawyer,'

'A lawyer?'

'Yeah, like, I was reading about some of the bullshit that is going on in this country, people being taken advantage and stuff and they couldn't afford to speak out and defend themselves, and...so I was thinking maybe like, I could become a lawyer and help people. Maybe I could be the girl who helps these people out by taking those scumbags to court. Maybe like, a civil rights and immigration lawyer or something. I could help to speak up for people who can't speak up for themselves, like immigrants who the government is trying to deport illegally or maybe even working for marriage equality in all fifty states, or...,' she began starting to work herself into a frenzy, before Brittany kissed her soundly.

'That is amazing, Santana Lopez. You're brilliant. And You're going to be a brilliant lawyer, I just know it,' she said, after she pulled away.

'Yeah?'

'Yeah, you've certainly already got the arguing down pat,' Brittany teased, before she again kissed Santana soundly. 'I love you so much, Santana'

'I love you, too, Brittany,' Santana said, and then shot up, struck with an idea. 'Stay right there, I'll be right back,' she called to her girlfriend, running to the other room to grab her handbag, and rummaging through it to pull out a small, thin gift-wrapped box.

She quickly ran back to the family room where the sofa was and said,

'Okay, close your eyes, Britt,' she said as she came around the back of the sofa sit back down next to her girlfriend. 'Okay, open them,' she said once she was sat next to Brittany, her gift in hand.

Brittany slowly opened her eyes and quizzically turned to face Santana who was holding a small, thin, box wrapped in gold paper.

'When I saw this, I knew I had to get it for you. I picked it up from the shop in the mall before the movie when we were waiting for Mike and Girl Chang to meet us – when I told you I was going to the bathroom I actually went to go pick this up from the jeweler,' she said, shyly, her cheeks and ears pinking slightly. 'I know its a bit early, but I don't think I can wait until Christmas for you to open it. Go on, then, open it,' she said, handing it over to the blonde.

Brittany quickly and gleefully opened the box, to reveal a beautiful, thin, feminine chain upon which dangled a silver pendant. It was silver, because it better went with Brittany's skin tone, and Santana also knew that Brittany preferred silver to gold. The pendant itself was a stylised eight-pointed star with its four cardinal points elongated far beyond the other points, making it look slightly like a compass, or the Star of Bethlehem, which made it even better as a Christmas gift, Santana thought.

'Santana, its beautiful!' she gasped happily. 'Put it on me?' she asked, handing it to her girlfriend, and turning in her seat so that Santana could do the clasp in the back.

'Is it a Star of Bethlehem, Santana? If it is, its probably the most Christmassy Christmas gift I've ever received,' she said, laughing at her little joke.

'No, its Polaris,' Santana said. 'The North Star. I've even had it engraved,' she said, and Brittany flipped the small star over and read the inscription. _Happily Ever After._

'You're sure its not the star from Peter Pan, Santana?' Brittany happily half-joked. 'It certainly makes sense with the inscription, too'

'Heh, I guess it does. I didn't even think about it like that, Britt,' she said, laughing. Brittany definitely was a genius. 'That certainly applies, too, but I was thinking more of the North Star'

'Why the North Star?'

'Well, you know how the North Star never moves?'

'Yeah'

'And you know how in the old days before phones and GPS and stuff sailors and people lost at sea or in the desert and stuff would use the North Star to navigate?'

'Yeah'

'Well, Brittany...you're my North Star. Because I know that no matter what else is going on in my life, as long as I have you, I'll always be able to find my way home,' she said, and Brittany smiled through the tears of happiness she had let fall from her eyes at Santana's sweet words.

'But I guess Peter Pan works for that, too, "first star on the right, and straight on 'till morning",' Santana quoted from memory the famous directions on navigating to Neverland, a place that the girls had, on multiple occasions, tried to visit during their many sleep overs when they were younger, and although they had never succeeded in finding Peter Pan and the Lost Boys or Captain Hook, Santana believed that she and Brittany had finally found their Never-Never-Land in each other.

A few seconds later, Santana was caught completely off-guard when Brittany practically launched herself at her, kissing her with a ferocious neediness that she never had before, but which was totally a turn on and she wanted to happen more often. The force with which Brittany was attacking her mouth and her clothes forced her to lay down on the sofa for support, which led to Brittany straddling her girlfriend and grinding her body on Santana's in a way that made them both groan happily into each other's mouths. They broke apart a few moments later, both gasping for air.

'We need to go upstairs. Now.'

'Definitely,' Brittany agreed, gasping for air happily. 'But first, since you gave me one of my gifts early, I want to give you one of yours early,' she said, not moving from her position straddling Santana.

Instead, she simply undid the buttons on her blouse and pulled it off, revealing a sexy, skimpy bra that was barely holding her boobs – which Santana was crazy about – in place.

'Is it sexy underwear?' Santana asked suggestively, waggling her eyebrows.

'No,' Brittany said. 'Well, yes, these are sexy underwear, but I'm wearing these just so we could have sexy underwear fun tonight. They aren't your gift,' she said saucily, winking. Slowly Brittany removed a small gauze bandage from just above her boobs and directly over hear heart. Which Santana hadn't noticed until Brittany drew her attention to it, because after all, when they were both all hot-and-bothered like that, she was rather more preoccupied with other parts of Brittany's anatomy.

'Brittany, are you okay? What happened?' Santana asked, suddenly worried, seeing the gauze come off and a bit of dried blood staining the gauze. She also wondered how she hadn't noticed that before. Brittany just had a way with her, she guessed.

'Of course, I'm fine, Babe. Nothing happened. Well, nothing bad, anyway. This is your gift.'

'Huh?'

'A few weeks ago, I got a tattoo,' she said, smiling, finally pulling all the gauze away and revealing the now-healed tattoo she had gotten. It was the initials SML written in a very fine calligraphic semi-cursive style with a stylised heart behind it. 'This way,' she said to Santana who was gazing up at her newly-tattooed girlfriend in a mix of awe and love, 'No matter what happens, wherever we are, wherever we go, you'll always be right here with me,' she said, her voice full of love.

'Do you like it?'

Instead of replying with words, Santana decided to show her girlfriend with deeds how much she loved the gesture – her gift. So she lifted the blonde girl off of her midsection, rolled out from underneath her and grabbed her, still stunned, by the hand and ran – nearly dragging Brittany behind her – to their bedroom, locked the door behind them, and threw her on the bed. They spent the rest of the night showing each other just how much they loved each other.

* * *

'What's wrong with a story that's a little sad? Or a song that's a little depressing? That's part of Christmas too, right? I mean, its the sad things that make you remember what's really important,' Sam was saying, standing up from his seat and challenging Artie on his 'artistic vision' for the Christmas special they would all be performing in.

All three Pierce-Lopez girls were very excited about the Christmas special, and really anything related to Christmas which was coming up fast, and were thrilled to be involved in the project, but Santana found herself agreeing with Sam. She had had a lot of really shitty Christmases after all, and so had many other people she was sure. And she knew that without the shittiness of the bad Christmases, she wouldn't be able to appreciate how amazing the good ones were – or even the elements of the bad ones that weren't so bad. Like two years ago when she and Brittany were still trying to figure out what it was that they were doing, and her parents were supposed to fly home from Christmas until New Years, but last minute bailed in order to do...something. She'd already forgotten what. She had called Brittany, drunk and barely intelligible, and Brittany had dropped everything and come over to her house – not only with herself, but her entire family had come over and celebrated Christmas in her big, empty house, making her feel, for one of the first times in her life part of a happy, loving family at Christmas, and when all the other members of her family had left, Brittany had stayed over and spent the night, making the night even more special. She still thought of that as one of her best Christmas memories so far, even if the rest of the loving family turned out to be a bunch of horrible, evil bigots when their daughter came out to them as queer and in love with a woman. Nevertheless, in that moment, that was a great Christmas. And it wouldn't have seemed so great or out of the ordinary at all if she didn't have sad memories on Christmas as well.

'I'm sorry, Sam, but the phrase is "Merry Christmas" not "Morose Christmas",' Artie said, gesticulating for emphasis. 'That's the vision! That's what you have to buy into!'

'Well, sorry Artie, but I don't think I'm going to buy into it. I think I'm gonna go downtown and see if I can ring one of those Salvation Army bells,' Sam said, making to leave the auditorium where they were having the meeting. 'Come on, Rory, I'll give you a ride.'

This was just getting ridiculous now, Santana thought. She definitely agreed with Sam on his point about sad things making happy things happier, but it was almost like he was trying to be miserable. She had had enough of people being miserable on Christmas. She decided she had to say something.

'Alright, hold up,' she said, to the room at large but particularly to the two boys having an apparent dick measuring contest right there in the middle of the room. 'Nobody is going anywhere. Trouty, Wheels, hold up for a second,' she said, making her way to the aisle and then down to the centre of the room. 'I definitely understand where Trouty's coming from here. I've had a lot of shitty Christmases. I mean, I haven't spent Christmas with my parents since I was twelve. And now my Abuela wants nothing to do with me as well...and last Christmas was terrible, as Girl Chang already said, but especially for Brittany and I, too, because whilst we were technically together then, we couldn't be together openly, and having to be apart for Christmas whilst we did our separate family events, or having to watch everywhere we walked because boys would try to trick one, or both, of us to stand under the mistletoe with them, and seeing you, Artie trying so hard to get back with Brittany for Christmas,' she said, laughing at how ridiculous it all seemed now, but it was so terrible and hurt her so much then,

'I fucking _hated _you, then, Artie. I mean, I couldn't tell you because we weren't official until a few months later, if you remember, but I wanted to push you down a flight of stairs,' she said, breathing deeply as some people inhaled sharply at her admission. '_But_,' she added, 'the point I'm _trying_ to make is that, despite all the bad parts about Christmas last year, I remember that in the end, we all did have a pretty nice Christmas, throwing that surprise party for Mr Shue. And even though I've had a lot of shitty Christmases, what with my parents and Abuela situation, I've always been able to find a few good things out of every Christmas which always made it okay. And yeah, usually that had to do with Britt, but still, the point is that, without the bad, we wouldn't be able to appreciate the good,' she said firmly, and Sam smiled broadly, almost smirking at Artie.

'But at the same time,' she said, 'I definitely understand Artie's desire to "buy into" a happy, joyful Christmas. That's what its supposed to be about. That's what I'm looking forward to most about Christmas this year is that its the first Christmas Britt and I will be able to spend together, as a couple, and we don't need to worry about disappointing, or being disappointed by, our families or anything like that. This year, Christmas is going to be fun, and wonderful, and happy, so I definitely understand the desire to want to keep things light and happy in the special,' she said, and Artie, too, looked smug.

'Basically, what I'm trying to say is this: yes, Christmas is a time of joy and happiness, but if we didn't have sad things in our lives – yes, even on Christmas – we would have no perspective and we wouldn't be able to appreciate the good things for what they are. And I think that helping others who are spending this holiday season a bit worse off or less fortunate than we are is definitely something that shows what this holiday is really about,' she said, smiling at Sam. 'I think I'll join you, Trouty,' she said, smiling. 'But first, I want to show you what I mean about choosing to be positive for the holidays,' she said, climbing on to the stage and whispering in the ears of the band members there.

'I could choose to be depressed, and hate Christmas from now until eternity, based on all the shitty Christmases I've had in the past,' she said, walking to the centre of the stage. 'But instead, I love Christmas. I see it as a time of joy and hope...kind of like Jesus himself,' she said, chuckling.

'Amen,' Mercedes, Quinn and Sam echoed.

'Christmas is still my favourite holiday, behind my birthday, despite everything, because I choose to see it positively. I choose to be happy, and look forward to the good parts, not dwell on the bad,' she said, seriously. 'And I hope this explains what I mean,' she said, turning to the band and yelling 'Hit it, boys!' And a festive, bouncy tune cut through the tension-filled air.

'_¡Feliz Navidad! / ¡Feliz Navidad! / ¡Feliz Navidad, próspero año y felicidad!__' _

She began to sing in a happy, soulful voice and dance happily around the stage, and eventually left the stage as well to dance in the aisles of the auditorium, closer to her friends, slowly pulling people up to dance and join her in singing, starting with Sugar and Brittany,

'_I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas / I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas / I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas, from the bottom of my heart_'

She continued singing and dancing, leaving Brittany and Sugar to grab more partners out of their seats to dance – Brittany grabbing Mike Chang and Sugar beelining for Rory – as she grabbed Sam by his hand and led him back down to where now the entire glee club was all dancing and having fun, and dancing with him until she saw him start to smile – even if it was creepy how large his mouth and lips were, they were friends and she didn't like seeing him frowning. Eventually, by the time she was done singing, they were all dancing and having fun together, and Sam sat back down, agreeing that he had perhaps over-reacted slightly, and Santana said that she, certainly, and possibly Brittany and Sugar, too, would come ring bells with him downtown afterwards. Rory said that he would come as well. And because Rory was coming, Santana knew that Sugar would come along as well. She thought it was cute how she had a little crush, even though she knew that meant she would have to have a talk with her eventually about her, and boys, and dating, and time travel, which she was not looking forward to. But she did know that with all them out there ringing Salvation Army bells for chairty, they would help out a lot of people who needed it this year, and that was certainly part of what Christmas was all about.

After everything had died down and everyone had gone back to their seats, Artie said,

'Alright, Santana, that was great. I'm not sure if we'll wind up using that song or not, but I definitely like the attitude. I think we've got time for two more today,' he said. 'Who's up next?'

'I am Mr Shue...I mean Artie,' Sugar said, heading up to the stage, giggling at her own joke.

'She definitely gets her sense of humour from you,' Brittany whispered into Santana's ear as their daughter made her way to the stage, and Santana chuckled under her breath and nodded in agreement.

'Ok, so,' Sugar said once she was on stage. 'This is probably one of the first songs I ever learned to sing,' she told her friends. 'And its one of my favourite Christmas songs of all time...My moms...err parents...,' she said, rolling the s of 'moms' easily into the 'err' she used to correct her slip, hoping that nobody noticed. She continued, '...make me sing it to them every year. Here we go,' she said, nodding to the band who started to play,

'_I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus / underneath the mistletoe last night / She didn't see me creep / down the stairs to have a peek / She thought that I was tucked / up in my bedroom fast asleep_...'

As their daughter sang, Brittany and Santana's faces were a mixture of indulgent smiles and shocked expressions, which they wore whilst snuggled close together in their seats and linked their pinkies like they often did, and tried not to laugh at the scene unfolding before them. But after Sugar had finished singing, they smiled broadly and clapped heartily like everyone else. As Artie was giving her feedback and she made her way back down to her seat, Santana whispered in her girlfriend's ear,

'I guess one of us is going to have to invest in a sexy Santa costume'

'As long as the other gets to be a sexy Mrs Claus,' Brittany replied coyly.

'I can definitely see why we make her sing that every year, though. That was adorable. I can only imagine how cute it will be when she's still in single-digit ages,' Santana said, and Brittany nodded in agreement, as Sugar sat back down.

'Right, who's next? And remember guys, this is it for the day,' Artie said, as Puck made his way to the stage, his guitar in hands.

'Puck...you want to sing a...Christmas song?' Artie asked, surprised and not the least bit delicately.

'Well, not really. This is more of a holiday song for all the Jewish kids,' he said, tuning his guitar.

'But Puck, this is a Christmas special,' Rachel said.

'Listen to yourself, Rachel,' Puck said to her. 'You're a Jew, and you're all Christmas crazy. Learn to be proud of your heritage,' he said, as he began to play.

'_Put on your yarmulke / its time for Hanukkah / its so much fun-akkah / to celebrate hanukkah_'

He sang the entire three and a half minutes of Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song. Santana couldn't tell whether he was being serious or just taking the piss, though, and was trying to figure it out through his entire performance.

'_Some drink your gin and tonic-ah / or smoke your marijuan-ika / if you really really wannaka / have a happy happy happy happy Hanukkah..._'

He played and sang very well, and his rendition was good, but Artie would never let him sing it in the show – even if he wanted to, he couldn't for copyright reasons, and Artie told him as much.

'Its cos I'm Jewish, isn't it'

'What...no...Puck, you know that's not why...'

'Then why is it then?'

'I just told you. That song has so many copyrights on it, if we even tried, the Station would drop us like a rock – if they can't afford the licensing fees for the Yule Log, do you think they'd be able to afford Adam Sandler? The performance was good, just...we can't use that song. Pick another song, Puck. I'd prefer it to be a Christmas song, for artistic continuity, but if you're set on a hanukkah song, fine,' Artie said, running his head through his hair in frustration and as a smirking Puck swaggered off the stage. Yep, he was taking the piss, Santana realised, and she sniggered. It was pretty funny, after all, if you thought about it.

* * *

Santana was glad that she volunteered to go ring Salvation Army bells with Rory and Sam. All in all, Brittany, Santana, Sugar, Rory and Sam had all gone together to ring bells and help collect for charity, and she was glad they had: it was certainly a good experience. In addition being out there, in the cold, helped them bond together, as friends.

She especially liked that it gave her an opportunity to talk with Sam, that she hadn't since before he moved away when his family was homeless. She couldn't even imagine what he must have had to go through that whole time, and even though she would always give him shit, because that was just the sort of relationship they had – and he knew that, more importantly so he always knew it came from a place of friendship and platonic love – she liked and respected the kid immensely. She had even before he and his family went through all that they had, but even moreso now, and she was glad that since they were standing there ringing bells for charity together, it gave them a chance to talk they hadn't had for quite a while.

'Hey Sam,' she said, trying to get his attention over the ringing of bells.

'Oh, its Sam now, is it? Not Trouty?'

'Within school boundaries and at school functions, you're Trouty,' Santana said. 'Outside school, it can go either way,' she teased. 'Anyway,' she continued, 'I wanted to say thank you for suggesting we all do this,' she said. 'I mean, I know you've had a rough year – we've all had pretty rough years, but nobody's really acknowledged how hard it must have been to go through what you and your family did. I mean, yeah, my parents are always away and are basically never here, but they're also loaded, so I've never had to really go without anything like food or a roof over my head in my life. Even so like now when Brittany and Sugar needed somewhere to stay, I can have them stay with me without any problem.' she said, grateful at how easily she was able to take care of the two most important people in her life, without giving away – she hoped – the true nature of their living arrangements. She continued,

'I just wanted to say that...I really respect the fact that you not only went through what you did the way you did, but also now that your family is back on its feet and you're back at school with us, you've still got this really positive attitude on life. I know I'm the first one to tease and be sarcastic about things and stuff, but...I honestly think its really great. I know if the roles were reversed I wouldn't handle it nearly as well,' she said, blushing slightly at the honesty.

'Wow, uh...thanks, Santana,' Sam said, honestly shocked that she would be so open and forthright and out-and-out kind to him about that sort of thing. 'That means a lot, especially coming from you'

'Hey, don't mention it, Trouty,' she said, and they both snickered at her switch to the nickname. 'I know we have this whole back and forth banter thing going on, but underneath everything I'd like to think we're pretty good friends, right?'

'Yeah, I think so,' Sam said, smiling. 'I mean I should hope we're at least friends. After all, we did date,' he said, teasing.

'Oh, God, don't remind me,' Santana groaned, covering her face with her free hand, and embracing its gloved warmth against the biting cold weather for a moment. 'You were my first beard, Sam,' she groaned again, but this time followed it up with a hearty laugh.

'I guess we'll always have that, eh?' Sam said, teasing her.

'Yes, yes we will. We'll always have Paris, Mr. Trouty,' she said, over-dramatically in a display of obvious over-acting. 'Just don't make my girlfriend jealous,' she said seriously.

Sam laughed heartily at that comment.

'I would never dream of it,' he said seriously. 'So what's this I hear about a Christmas party at your place?' he asked, a few moments later.

'I actually wanted to talk to you about that, Sam,' Santana said.

'I get it, Santana, you don't have to say anything. I'll figure somewhere else to be on Christmas,' he said, his voice giving away only the slightest hint of hurt.

'What? No. What are you talking about, Trouty?' Santana asked, geniunely curious. 'We just had this nice conversation about how we're such good friends and actually care for each other, and you think I don't want you there? What kind of fucked up logical steps does your brain have to take...you know what, no, nevermind. I don't even want to know,' she said, raising her free hand in exasperation.

'What I was going to say,' she continued, 'was that the actual party we're having isn't until Boxing Day, and Brittany and Sugar and I were going to just have a nice quiet Christmas dinner with ourselves this year,' she began, 'but I was talking with Brittany and I was thinking that maybe, instead of that, you and Rory could come over for a smaller thing...maybe like a mini Christmas dinner or something, on Christmas eve?'

'Me and Rory?'

'Yeah, you and Rory. Sugar told me that you're like his, Christmas Sponsor, or something, whatever the fuck that means. But I get that you guys are spending the holiday together so you won't have to spend it alone. And I mean, its just that...I know what its like to spend Christmas alone. Or almost alone. There were so many Christmases where it was just me and my Abuela, or just me and Brittany – before we were going out – and I know how lonely it can be,' she added.

'Look, I can't answer for Rory, but I don't want to intrude or anything...'

'You won't be intruding. I'm inviting you. Nothing big, mind you, just you and Rory plus the three of us. Look, my parents are loaded, but never around, so I can basically do whatever I want, so I figure, why not help out those who deserve it, like you, and Rory, who is 3000 miles from his family and really lonely. I mean, if you guys have other plans, you don't have to come, I just thought maybe you'd like to come over, eat free food that my parents are paying for, sing some songs, maybe play some games or watch _Its A Wonderful Life_ or something, rather than be lonely on Christmas,' she said, plainly.

'It does sound really nice, Santana, and thanks for the offer,' Sam said.

'But...?'

'But like I said, I don't want to impose'

'It won't be an imposition! We're inviting you!'

'But...'

'No. I'm not accepting that excuse, Trouty. Look, will it make you feel better if I said that we were going to Midnight Mass and that you would have to come with us, and then go straight home, or wherever you're sleeping whilst you're here, from there? That I would kick you out after Midnight Mass? Would that make it seem like less of an imposition?'

'Actually, yes,' Sam said. 'And I've never been to Midnight Mass before, either, so that might be interesting,' he said. 'I'm in. But I'll have to see if Rory wants to come, too, he might not want to'

'Great,' Santana said. 'Come over around 19.00 on Christmas Eve, I'll text you the address later in the week,' she said, before continuing. 'And I wouldn't worry too much about Rory. I'm pretty sure if Sugar asked him to come in nothing but his socks – which she better fucking not, because I don't want to deal with _any_ of that nonsense – he would,' she said, chuckling. It was cute, she thought to herself, how obviously into each other they were. But on the other hand, she also thought to herself, there was a myriad of reasons she wished Sugar wasn't into Rory and she hoped that nothing happened between the two of them, but she knew that she was probably betting impossible odds. She was going to have to talk to Sugar about this sooner, rather than later, she feared.

Whilst this was happening, very few people crossed their path, and even fewer donated money for their charity buckets. Luckily, however, just as their conversation was dying down to a lull, the movie house across the street, which happened to be playing _It's A Wonderful Life_ – which was great for guilting people with money into donating to charity around Christmastime – was just letting out and a stream of people were exiting the theatre. For one reason or another, however, the bells were not enough to get people's attention and have them give.

Damn economy, Brittany thought bitterly in her head, as she watched so many people – who had money to pay for movie tickets and popcorn and drinks – just walk past them whilst they were ringing the bells for charity, without donating a single coin or note. This would not do at all, she thought to herself, as she tried to think of a way to gather the crowd back and inspire them to donate some money to charity.

'Mo – err, Brittany, they're all leaving,' Sugar said, saddened. 'I thought they'd all give heaps after getting out of that movie,' she said.

'So did I, Sugar,' she said, careful to just use her daughter's name, so as to not rouse any suspicion in the others who were present. 'Its the damn economy,' she said. 'Yet, of course they still have money to spend on gifts and movies for themselves,' she said sadly.

'We have to do something,' Rory, who was standing next to them, on the other side of the bucket from Sam and Santana, said.

'I agree, but what?' Sugar said desperately.

'Sing,' Brittany said, suddenly energised, then whispered into her daughter's ear so only Sugar could hear, and Sugar immediately smiled and started nodding. She then put down her bell and began to sing, loud, crisp and clear in the winter night,

'_Adeste, Fideles! / Laeti triumphantes! / venite, venite in Bethlehem! / Natum videte Regem Angelorum / venite adoremus! Venite adoremus! Venite adoremus! / __D__ominum!' _

After the first verse, Rory, who was raised in the conservative countryside of devoutly Catholic Ireland – and so, also knew the Latin words – joined in, singing with her.

'_Deum de Deo / lumen de lumine / Gestant puellae viscera / Deum verum, genitum non factum / Venite adoremus! / Venite adoreumus! / Venite adoreums! / Dominum_'

At this point, most of the people who had left the theatre had gathered around the glee kids to hear them sing. Some were moved to tears, hearing the beautiful singing, and many more were moved to donate. Even those who had originally left the movie house and went straight to their cars, many had doubled back to listen and donate a small bit of money. As the crowd gathered more and more people, Brittany, Santana and Sam began to sing as well, however, they sang in English,

'_O Come, all ye faithful / Joyful, and triumphant! / O come ye, o come ye, to Bethlehem! / Come and behold him / born the King of Angels / O come let us adore him! / O come let us adore him! / O come let us adore him! / Christ the Lord! / __Sing Choirs of Angels / Sing in Exultation / Sing all ye citizens of Heaven above / Glory to God in the Highest / O come let us adore Him / O come let adore Him / O come let us adore Him / Christ the Lord!'_

When they had finished singing, they received a resounding round of applause from the gathered crowd, and once again a surge in donation from those assembled.

'Thank you very much, everyone,' Brittany said to the crowd gathered in front of them, suddenly inspired. 'Remember, all proceeds of this charity goes to needy families right here in Lima. We're glad that you're all here, tonight, giving,' she said, spontaneously trying to work the crowd. _What a ham_, Santana thought lovingly. Brittany continued,

'My name is Brittany S. Pierce, and this is my girlfriend, Santana,' she said, pointing to the Latina. 'On her other side is Sam. On my other side, here,' she said, indicating Sugar, 'Is the one of a kind Sugar,' she said, conveniently leaving off the surname, just like she was with the others, 'and on the far end down there next to Sugar,' she said, pointing to Rory, 'all the way from County Cork, Ireland, is our good friend Rory Flannigan,' she said, earning yet another round of applause from the crowd. 'And we are all members of the McKinley High glee club, and we're out here tonight helping raise money for those who are less fortunate than ourselves this Christmas season'

'If you can, please give. A little, a lot, it doesn't matter, just give what you can. Every little bit helps, and remember, this money goes to help people right here in Lima, not random strangers you'll never see or meet,' she said. She was very clever indeed. 'And, if you like what you've heard tonight, remember we have a Christmas Special airing on Christmas Eve Night on Public Access PBS to replace the Yule Log which was cancelled this year, and we have concerts and competitions throughout the year that you, the public of our community, can enjoy. Come out, buy tickets, support the arts in your local communities,' she said, hamming it up like a natural. Santana was convinced her girlfriend could sell ice to an eskimo if she really wanted.

'Its been really nice singing for all of you tonight,' she said. 'But I think its very cold and we've kept you all out here long enough. So I think we'll sing one more song, and then we'll all go home to warm up,' she said, followed by many chuckles from assorted people in the crowd, after which she began to sing.

'_Hark! Herald angels sing! / Glory to the New-Born King!/ Peace on Earth, and mercy mild/ God and sinners, reconciled...'_

After the first verse, the others began to sing as well, harmonising perfectly around Brittany's mid-range voice.

'_Joyful, all the Nations rise / join the triumph in the skies / with the Angelic Host proclaim / Christ is born in Bethlehem / Hark! The Herald Angels sing / Glory to the New-Born King!...' _

As they finished their song, they felt a deep sense of accomplishment. Of course the fair bit of money they raised and hearty rounds of applause they received didn't hurt either. And slowly as the crowd gave out its last donations of money and compliments and began to dissipate, all the glee clubbers felt extremely close to each other, in that moment, and felt as if they were just a little bit closer to the true meaning of Christmas and understanding the Christmas spirit, and they shared hugs and high-fives, and in the case of Brittany and Santana (and later on, all three of the Pierce-Lopez family), kisses, as appropriate, before returning to the warmth of their cars, and eventually, their homes, thankful for the blessings they had in their lives.

* * *

The next day, as the Pierce-Lopezes sat more or less together – Sugar was sat in the row in front of them, in between Mike Chang and Rory – waiting for Mr Shue to come into the choir room and begin the meeting or whatever lesson he had for the day, Santana sat, quietly retrospective of how much her life, and she herself, had changed since being with Brittany.

She and Brittany had been together for a little under two years now, though they had only been Out and Proud for about the past eight months or so. In that time, being with Brittany in this way, the way she had wanted since she first realised what those strange, funny feelings she had for the blonde whenever they were together in each others' presence, had changed her innumerably, but the most important way was that she had become more empathetic, kind and loving. Most importantly, she finally knew what love – real, long-lasting, grow-old-together, adult love – was. It was different than and not at all like what it was portrayed like in the movies or in books or tv. It certainly wasn't all googly-eyes and mushy confessions of love that sound like they come out of corny, clichéd writer's fingers that made her look and sound like a goober. Although, for her and Brittany there was a fair amount of making googly-eyes at each other and open, public verbal confessions of love, on the part of each girl to the other, often as often as possible. This was probably because, she thought to herself anyway, for so long they weren't allowed to do so in public, for fear of...whatever it was they were afraid of. No public displays of affection at all, neither physical nor verbal, and therefore they both enjoyed when their partner showed their love and affection in such ways. And she hoped, with every fibre of her being, that they continued to do so until they were both old and grey and their boobs sagged to their knees.

But she had also learned that it was much more than that, and that kind of real, grow-old-together love goes far beyond that. This kind of love was reciprocal; it meant that those involved cared just as much, if not more, about their partner's happiness than their own, and this attitude was reciprocated by both partners. It was about building a life together, creating a partnership where both partner's needs are met, ideas are valued, and imput was sought and appreciated, and where important decisions were made together. There was no 'going rogue' in this kind of love. Brittany liked dishes to be washed out immediately and a general level of tidiness maintained at home. Even though Santana couldn't care less either way, it was because she loved Brittany and wanted to make her happy that she made sure such desires were met. Likewise, because she was rubbish in the mornings and was terrible at waking up and getting things done before a certain time of the day – or at the very least before she'd had her coffee – Brittany, who had always been much more of a morning person, woke up before she did, and made sure everything that needed to be taken care of for their mornings, were: she made sure that Sugar, who took after her Mami in this regard, was awake and getting ready for school on days when they had school, she made sure that lunches were made or any other preparations for the day that needed to be finished were done, and made sure that there was a steaming cup of coffee, prepared just the way she liked it, was waiting for Santana when she was finally up and ready to start the day. Both girls just _did_ these things; they didn't have conversations and talk about or request such arrangements. They just _happened_ because they both truly cared about the wishes and desires of the other. It just happened, and it became completely natural and second nature without much thought, certainly because this was the first time she had given it any conscious thought.

Additionally, this kind of love didn't require them to be constantly speaking to each other all the time, or in each other's company constantly – reciprocal love of this nature respected each other's time apart, private quiet time – even if they didn't really need or choose to use that much time apart as they were, and would always remain each other's best friend in addition to lover, however this kind of love took into account that sometimes each wanted to just spend time alone, or with their own friends, and that was okay; likewise, it meant that she and Brittany could spend hours in the same room, not talking, each doing separate activities, and it would not be weird or awkward and neither would feel somehow compelled or forced to initiate or force conversation where there was none.

And there was even more to it than that, now, too. This kind of love went beyond those sorts of things that could be defined so easily...it was just something that happened now. But she had changed, irrevocably, for the better. She was trying her best, now, to be nice. To be kind. She was giving impromptu Christmas carol concert in the middle of the street in the cold, in order to raise money for charity. She was inviting people she barely knew over to her house for Christmas Dinner. She was, put simply, trying to be a better person. For her daughter. She didn't want Sugar to be raised by the version of herself she was before, when she was mean and nasty and everyone was afraid of her. Yes, a healthy dose of respect and even fear would go along way, especially insofar as protecting her daughter. And yes, it was also true that most of her mean-ness was her own defence mechanisms against her internal struggle which had since been rendered irrelevant, but that was irrelevant, she knew. And that she was a very different person now than the person she was before – before she and Brittany were able to finally be together. And especially different to how she was now, now that they had Sugar. She wanted her daughter to be proud of her; she wanted to be able set a good example for her daughter for how to live her life. She wanted to be a role model and a good example, and a huge part of that was making an honest effort to be a better, kinder, more honest and more charitable person. And she was really trying. And for that, Sugar and Brittany were entirely to thank.

She was roused from her reverie by the arrival of Mr Shue, who was excitedly walking to the centre of the room to his normal spot by the piano.

'Hey, guys, I heard about your little impromptu carolling with the Salvation Army bells last night,' he said, smiling broadly.

'What are you talking about Mr Shue?' Finn asked, clearly confused with a few others nodding in agreement.

'You mean it wasn't all of you?'

'No...'

'Oh, I thought you had planned this ahead of time and were just taking it in turns or something,' he said, slightly disappointed in the rest of them. 'Well, anyway, Finn,' he began again, his usually peppy self,

'Apparently last night after the meeting you guys had with Artie to figure out songs for the PBS special, Sam, Rory, Brittany, Santana and Sugar went to ring bells for the Salvation Army and wound up giving an impromptu concert,' he said proudly. 'Which, by the way, raised over $300 for charity,' he said even more proudly, smiling broadly and clapping heartily which was followed by the rest of the glee club, giving the five carollers a hearty round of applause.

'And, that's not all,' he said, nearly jumping in place due to his excitement, 'Apparently, one of the people who stopped to listen to you last night is an administrator for the school, and knows our financial difficulties in terms of funding for costumes and travel,' he said. 'She loved what she heard, and was even more impressed that five high schoolers would stand outside at night in the cold and sing to total strangers to raise money for those less fortunate than they are...and she was really impressed with your talent, as well. She was so impressed that a group of five teenagers, in her own words, "were so selfless in giving up their time to help the less fortunate and that they so much embodied what the real spirit of Christmas is supposed to be all about",' he said, continuing,

'So she called me on the phone in my office earlier today and she told me "If you are able to do that much with those glee club kids of yours with all the funding problems you're having and with Ms. Sylvester giving you so much trouble every step of the way, I can only imagine what you'd do with a fuller budget" and then, and then,' he said, nearly hyper-ventilating from excitement, 'She _personally donated two thousand dollars of her own money_ to the glee club! Guys, that's the rest of our budget for the entire year, and then some!' He said, barely containing his excitement. The entire choir room erupted into whoops and cheers and applauds, and many members of the glee club hugged each other tightly in celebration. When it all eventually died down, several minutes later, Mr Shue added,

'You see, guys? Sometimes the Good Guys do win. If you do good, and put good out into the world, sometimes, that good comes right back to you. That's the kind of message I want you guys to internalise. I want you to remember this moment, how you feel right now. I want you to think back on this in the future when you might get into a jam and be in a place where times might be a bit tough. Because this moment, right now, is how it feels to do good, and be rewarded for it in return'

After a few more minutes of Mr Shue talking and letting his words sink in, Sugar raised her hand.

'Mr Shue?'

'Yes Sugar?'

'Um, this doesn't have anything to do with last night, but I just wanted to say that I didn't think it was very cool for Artie to not let Puck sing his Hanukkah song for the show'

'It's copyrighted material, Sugar,' Artie said, pleading that people understood he wasn't an anti-semite or anything. And its true, he wasn't. But the way he acted certainly was culturally insensitive.

'Ok, but you could let him sing a different Hanukkah song,' she said.

'It's a Christmas programme, Sugar! Why don't you understand that? You can't have Hanukkah songs in a Christmas programme!'

'Why not?'

'What do you mean, why not?'

'I mean why not?'

Everyone else was just watching this exchange with baited breath, waiting to see how it would play out, including the two Jews who were enjoying immensely not having to be the ones to justify their own traditions for once.

Artie ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

'My God, Sugar, you sound so much like Brittany right now...' he said, without thinking, and by the time he did, he realised it was too late.

Sugar, for her part, smiled broadly, thinking he was complimenting her – as she always knew her Mommy was a genius and super smart and if she could think and act and sound just a little bit like her, she was super happy to do so – not realising he was, in his mind, basically calling her stupid. Brittany and Santana, however, weren't so naive.

'What the fuck did you say?!' Santana said, immediately jumping to her feet, fists balled in fury with Brittany not far beyond her, herself blurting out,

'What the fuck is THAT supposed to mean?!'

'No...Brittany...that's not what I meant...I...'

'Well?' Santana said angrily, tapping her foot impatiently, waiting for an explanation. 'Because it sounds to me like you just called Sugar stupid. Just like you called Brittany stupid last year, and I'd love to see how you get yourself out of this one,' she said, anger coming off of her in waves, and the look of hurt on Brittany's and Sugar's – especially once Sugar found out that he was calling not only her, but also Brittany, stupid, and had done before – would have broken the hearts of even the most stone-faced, black hearted people.

'No, listen, I wasn't...I just...this whole thing is ridiculous...it's a Christmas show...not a holiday show...isn't Hanukkah over tonight, anyway...?' he rambled, trying to find his feet in his own defence but failing spectacularly.

'It doesn't matter if Hanukkah is over or not,' Puck said. 'If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were anti-semitic,' Puck added, not truly serious, but loving so much watching Artie squirm, because, frankly, he did deserve it.

'What? No! I'm not...I don't...I...' was all Artie could comprehensibly say.

'I know you're not, man,' Puck said. 'Like I said, If I didn't know better. But I do. _However_,' he added, stressing the caveat, 'it was still a major dick move, and Sugar was right, and in response, instead of apologising, you act like both she and Brittany are stupid...major dick move, bro,' Puck replied.

'Mr Shue,' Santana said, 'Whilst I respect Artie as an artist, and I know he may not have meant to be as insensitive as he has been, and Brittany, Sugar and I will still rehearse and perform in the show as planned because _we're professionals_,' she said stressing the fact that they were able to maintain a certain level of professional decorum, 'I don't feel it's right or fair to give Artie full artistic control – even if it was great when he knocked the Hobbit down a few pegs – or that he should be effectively running glee in order to rehearse. Look, its the last week before Christmas holidays, and I think we should both rehearse and have our regular meetings. Where we should still be able to sing, for _you_ and everyone else in here, Mr Shue, not for Wheels,' she added snarkily in her best Snixx voice, 'where people should be able to sing whatever damn holiday song they want'

After her mini diatribe, she sat down, crossing her arms over her chest and smirking smugly as her comments were met with applause and affirmations from the rest of the glee club.

'Well, I guess I can't argue with that,' Mr Shue said. 'You heard them, Artie. Gotta give the people what they want,' he said, placing his bag on the piano and withdrawing a marker pen and walking over to the board at the back of the room. On the board he wrote one phrase: **Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Season's Greetings **

'Right guys. This week's assignment, then, will be really simple. Sing your favourite holiday song – or songs – whatever you want. At the end of the week, Artie and I will confer and _together_ we will decide which songs will go into the show'

'But...Mr Shue,' Artie started to protest.

'Don't worry, Artie. You'll still be able to stick to your artistic vision. Just consider me as a sort of...consultant. There to make sure you don't offend anyone or do or say something stupid,' he said, smiling broadly as Artie just nodded tersely.

'So, with that in mind...,' Mr Shue said, drawing his words out needlessly. 'Do we have any volunteers?'

'Mr Shue, I've got something to share, if that's okay,' Sam said.

'Yeah, of course, Sam. The floor is yours.'

Sam made his way to the centre of the room where they used to perform during club meetings, grabbing his guitar from the side of the room on the way.

'So, as you guys know, this year hasn't been the best for me, and I wasn't particularly looking forward to Christmas this year,' he said, sombrely. 'But last night, Santana and I had a nice long conversation and I realised that we all have a lot more going for us than we might think, and as long as we find the positive, we'll be alright. I mean, look at last night...we raised $300 for charity and got funding for the rest of the year, and had a great time singing and bonding, all because I was pissed at Artie's "only happy things at Christmas" bullshit – which, I still think is stupid, by the way,' he said, chuckling. 'Anyway, this song is, I think, a happy song, even if the music is kind of slow and stuff,' he added, before be began to strum his guitar, and, after a few bars of music, began to sing,

'_And so this is Christmas / and what have you done / another year over / a new one's just begu__n / And so this is Christmas / I hope you have fun / the near and the dear ones / the old and the young..._'

To everyone's surprise, it was Finn, Puck and Rory who joined in singing along with Sam to the chorus first.

'_A very merry Christmas / and a Happy New Year / let's hope its a good one / without any fear_'

As soon as they started singing along, it was a floodgate, as everyone else in the glee club began to sing along, mostly the second voice part – in other words, Yoko's part – of the song, where appropriate. As Sam sang first voice part of the verse,

'_And so this is Christmas..._'

Brittany smiled and looked at Santana as she sang back,

'_War is over_'

'_For weak and for strong_'

The smiled happily at each other as each mother put one of her hands lovingly and supportively on their daughter's shoulder,

'_If you want it_'

'_For rich and the poor ones_'

Looking around the room, Santana could tell that most of the glee clubbers were also touched by the moving song. Mike Chang and Tina were holding hands as they sang along to Yoko's part as well,

'_War is over_'

'_The world is so wrong_'

Rory looked around the room as well, smiling happily when he made eye contact with the people around the room which were slowly, finally, becoming his friends,

'_If you want it_'

'_And so happy Christmas_'

'_War is over_'

Even Rachel Berry was happily singing along, and not complaining how her voice was wasted singing Yoko's part

'_For black and for white_'

Blaine and Kurt also both looked very happy, singing along to this anthem of peace and togetherness. Which, Santana understood more than most, was the true meaning of Christmas,

'_If you want it_'

'_For yellow and red ones_'

Even Artie had gotten over his dressing down earlier and was singing along, too,

'_War is over_'

They all harmonised together on the last line,

'_now_'

When the Sam stopped playing and the song finished roughly three and a half minutes later, the entire glee club almost seemed to have a communal sense of catharsis, as if they had gotten over whatever the issues they had earlier in the day or the week, and had all both forgiven and been forgiven, through song. It felt good, and Santana and Brittany would later both comment that they thought it made them all – not just in small sub-groups or units or couples, but as an entire club – that much closer, and wiped the slate of grievances they may have had with each other clean as Christmas swiftly approached.

'Wow, that was great! Let's give Sam another round of applause,' Mr Shue said, his usual positive self. 'I think we have time for one more performance today, guys, any takers?'

Kurt raised his hand and when acknowledged made his way down to the performance area of the choir room. With the assistance of Puck on guitar and Finn on the drums, he sang a very surprisingly rocking cover version of _Jingle Bell Rock_ that was, indeed, true to its name. After they had all been dismissed from glee club, the girls of the Pierce-Lopez family stopped at Breadstix on their way home for dinner, and then went home to spend some quiet time together as a family.

* * *

The next day in glee club, it was a free for all of people singing their favourite holiday songs, including both Rachel and Puck singing multiple different Hanukkah songs, enlightening most of the glee club to the fact that there were more Hanukkah songs than Adam Sandler and the Dreidel song. Towards the end of the class, Mr Shue asked if there were any more volunteers who wanted to sing in the last meeting before Christmas Holidays.

Rory stood up and volunteered to sing. After he had told Brad the piano player his song selection, he turned to everyone in the choir room who were waiting patiently, and smiled as he said,

'I know I've already done an Irish song, but its Christmas and I miss Ireland heaps,' he said. Or at least, that's what they thought he said. 'And anyway, this song is a really popular Christmas song in Ireland. I think it is here, too, but I'm not sure cos I've never heard it on the radio or anything. Anyway, its my favourite Christmas song in the world, and I hope you like it,'

After Brad the piano player played the iconic first few bars of the song, Rory began to sing, in a stereotypical lilting Irish accent,

'_It was Christmas Eve, Babe / in the drunk tank / an old man said to me / "won't see another one" / and then he sang a song / The Rare Auld Mountain Dew / I turned my face away / and dreamed about you..._'

Santana knew this song – she'd heard it a few times – it was actually Brittany who had introduced her to the song, but none of the times she heard it was it anything like this: every time she's previously heard it, it was Shane MacGowan drunk off hit tits, barely able to keep his voice in tune, but this, the way Rory was singing was something else entirely. It was mournful, and sad, and melancholy, but at the same time wonderfully hopeful and cheerful and seemed to physically embody the spirit of Christmas, as silly and clichéd as that would have sounded, if she said so out loud. Instead she, like everyone else, just listened, transfixed.

'_Got on a lucky one / came in eighteen-to-one / I've got a feeling / this year's for me and you / So Happy Christmas / I love you, Baby / I can see a better time / when all our dreams come true..._'

She smiled contentedly at her girlfriend as Brittany slid her hand in hers and intertwined their fingers gracefully. She knew that if anyone were to be paying attention, they would both be smiling like goobers, but Rory was surprisingly good at this Irish music stuff, and everyone was paying attention to him. At the end of the second stanza, a mandolin began to play also, out of nowhere adding to the accompaniment in a very nice way,

'_They've got cars big as bars / they've got rivers of gold / but the wind blows right through you / its no place for the old / when you first took my hand on that cold Christmas Eve / you promised me Broadway was waiting for me / you were handsome, and pretty / Queen of New York City / when the band finished playing they howled out for more / Sinatra was swinging, all the drunks they were singing / we kissed on the corner, then danced through the night / and the boys of the NYPD choir / were singing "Galway Bay" / and the bells were ringing out / on Christmas Day..._'

After that verse and reprise, he somehow had managed to get everyone up and, during the mandolin-heavy instrumental bridge, they all began dancing an Irish partner dance, something like a cross between a waltz and a country two-step. It was fun and they all were partnered up, the couples together, and the singles dancing with whomever was closest – Sugar made sure she was paired with Rory – and they danced furiously, bodies spinning and moving furiously in time with the music, until the instrumental bridge ended, and they all returned to their seats as Rory finished singing. When he had finished the song, there was a brief period of momentary silence as the glee club processed what they had seen, heard and participated in, and then an enthusiastic round of applause echoed in the choir room.

Santana was sure that Mr Shue had said some well-deserved words of flattery and encouragement to Rory after he had finished, but she wasn't paying attention. She was too flushed from the experience she had just had and from hearing this song in a new light – it truly was a song which encompassed all the highs and lows, all the emotions she knew well surrounding Christmas time – and she was filled with excitement and Christmas Spirit. This being the last meeting of glee club, not counting the Friday filming of their Christmas Special, she was – as was Brittany and Sugar – far too excited about the coming holidays and wanted the meeting to be over so that they could go home and start their first ever Pierce-Lopez family Christmas Holidays. And she was sure most of the other glee clubbers had similar thoughts going on in their minds, as well. Luckily, Mr Shue was also able to tell such things, or else had similar thoughts of his own, and dismissed them shortly after Rory finished singing, with a quick reminder about filming on Friday, and they all left and went their separate ways rather quickly thereafter, with the Pierce-Lopezes being some of the first out the door and into the car, eager to begin their Christmas holidays, together, as a family.

* * *

The day of filming the special had finally arrived, and the girls were actually quite excited for it. It was their last obligation for school or their extra-curriculars – not counting their homework – they had to fulfill until they had three and a half weeks of glorious holidays all to themselves. Of course, they were also excited to be in the show itself as well, so that was an added plus, not to mention the fact that since the episode in the choir room during the last glee club meeting Artie, Brittany and Santana had, somehow, reached some sort of an understanding, and whilst previous offences were not forgotten, they were, in the spirit of Christmas, forgiven.

Brittany was in a particularly happy and festive mood ever since they had arrived at the studio that morning – she had even remembered to bring a camera, because, no matter what happened she knew that she _would_ get photos of her baby girl in her costume. Her good mood had only been amplified that day when they actually got their costumes – especially when she saw the costumes that she and Santana, and the rest of the Cheerios who would be their background dancers, would be wearing. The skimpy Mrs Claus outfits were, in a word, perfect. They were cute, and sexily cut in all the right places to show off the parts of her body she knew Santana took particular liking to, and likewise, they were form-fitting enough to accent Santana's amazing, near-perfect ass, which she had a particular fondness for.

_'Can we keep these?' She asked the costume designer at the station. _

_'They cost $40 each' She replied haughtily. _

_'That doesn't answer my question. Can we keep them when we're done wearing them' _

_'If you pay the station the $40 they cost, go right ahead. I'm sure a pretty little thing like you will get more use out of it than they will get here,' the costume-lady said tiredly. 'Knock yourself out, darling, make that boyfriend of yours happy' She added. Brittany laughed out loud at the thought. _

_'Thanks, Miss. I'll need two,' she said, handing over $80 she withdrew from her handbag. 'One for me, and one for my _girlfriend_,' she had said, over-emphasising girlfriend, just to make a point. 'I think we'll just keep the ones we have one now, if its all the same to you, because they seem to fit perfectly,' she added, winking, as she walked off to find her daughter and girlfriend. _

_They were both on the stage area, with Santana laughing her head off and Sugar trying to comfort Rory on his part – and the costume for it. As it turns out, Rory had been cast by Artie in the role of "Itchy, the holiday Elf", and his costume was little better than that of a Leprechaun, with a slightly different hat. Sugar, too, was in her costume. Her costume, however, was much less demeaning and basically consisted of a regular red-and-green Christmas dress, but simply topped off with fake reindeer antlers and candy-cane striped knee stockings. She was absolutely adorable, and Brittany knew that once Sugar was born and they were in one unified timeline again, there would be many Christmases where she would make sure she dressed her daughter in a similar outift, perhaps with pigtails in her hair, though. Before anyone could say anything, Brittany's camera was out and she snapped a series of candid pictures of her daughter, as well as of Rory and Santana. _

_When she moved farther into the room, making her presence known to the others, Santana immediately strode over to greet her, embracing her in a hug and kissing her quickly on the lips. That was one of the best things, Brittany thought, about being Out and Proud and openly together. That they could do simple things like that. The simple things really were the best, she thought. _

_'Hey,' Santana greeted her. _

_'Hey Babe,' she answered back. 'Guess who's got four legs, four thumbs, and two Mrs Claus costumes that we get to keep?' Brittany asked, clearly in a very good mood. _

_'Coach Sue and Mr Shue?' Santana asked coyly playing along. _

_'Maybe,' Brittany replied seriously. 'But so do we. I just bought ours from the stage manager costume-lady,' she said. _

_'I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus indeed,' Santana said huskily, but quietly so as not to be overheard by Sugar._

_'Maybe Santana Claus, you mean,' Brittany replied saucily, matching her volume to that of Santana's. When they both refocused on the room at large and Rory and Sugar's conversation, he was saying to her, _

_'...its humiliating! I mean, for Christ's sakes, I'm Irish, not a bleeding leprechaun...oh, sorry, I mean "elf",' he was saying gesturing angrily at his horrible costume. Neither Santana nor Brittany could entirely blame him, but that didn't mean it still wasn't hilarious. _

_'Oh, come on, Rory, its not that bad,' Sugar was saying to him trying to cheer him up. 'I like the hat, its kind of funny. And look, it matches my socks!' _

_'Great. The only part of my costume that isn't a walking Irish stereotype,' he said glumly. 'You know, this is the first time this Christmas season that I'm glad my Mammy isn't here to see me. If she saw me like this, she'd give me such a hiding, for perpetuating stereotypes like this...' _

_'I have an idea! I can go to the costume-lady and get a sarape and sombrero! I'll be a Mexican reindeer!' _

_'Oh no, you won't,' Santana said. _

_'But...'_

_'No, Sugar' _

_'Why not?' Sugar asked, crossing her arms and pouting. _

_'Because no daughter of mine...I mean, daughter of my cousin, making you also my cousin...is going to make a spectacle of herself like that by perpetuating farcical stereotypes racist white people have about Mexicans, and that is final!' she said firmly, but immediately softening her face and her voice as she continued, 'even if it was just meant to help a friend. But you know what they say about the road to hell'_

_Sugar was no longer pouting, and even half-smiled, despite herself, at her Mami's words. Brittany, of course, had still shots of most of this interaction now on her camera. She was of course rather pleased with herself. _

_'Sorry, Rory,' Santana said. 'Its wrong to make you parade yourself like a walking stereotype, but that doesn't mean we have to, too. I hope you understand.' _

_'Completely, Santana. I actually feel the same way,' he said to her before turning to Sugar. 'But thanks for the offer anyway.' Sugar's cheeks and the tips of her ears pinked cutely under the thanks. _

_'I don't understand, though,' Rory said, to the room at large. 'I mean, did I do something wrong? Did I offend Artie or something?' _

_'What do you mean?' Brittany asked, slightly confused. She knew there were a lot of issues with the casting and song selection for the show, but she frankly didn't care too much, she was having too much fun. _

_'Well, instead of a singing anything, I have to read "Frosty the Snowman" at the end of the show, and dress like a bleeding leprechaun when I do it!' Rory said, frustrated. 'I mean, did I do something to offend the kid and this is his way of taking it out on me?' _

_'No, I don't think so,' Brittany said. _

_'Yeah, sometimes, he's just an insensitive ass,' Santana said. _

_'In Ireland, we'd call him a twat,' Rory said, laughing at what was, apparently, a funny comment. _

_'Well, he is...certainly...that...I think. More than sometimes,' Brittany said, with a slight hardness in her voice. 'I can't believe I used to date him' _

_'You used to date Artie, Mo...Brittany? EEEEEEEW' Sugar said, shuddering at that revelation. _

_'It was before your...cousin...and I were out and officially together, obviously,' Brittany said by way of explanation. 'Still, don't remind me. I try not to dwell on it as much as I can' _

_'Anyway, changing gears slightly here,' Santana said, to the room at large, 'Rory, if you want to get back at Wheels for this, I might have the perfect idea,' she said, smirking devilishly. Rory's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline as he and Sugar both leaned forward to listen to her plan, and, when she was finished, all three began to giggle maniacally, positively giddy. _

The rest of the day had gone by for Brittany and Santana in a blurry haze of final fittings and last minute rehearsals and script adjustments and Brittany taking as many photos as possible. Most were, of course, of Sugar, but in order to not appear too suspicious, she took plenty of photos of everyone that day: Rory, Santana, Kurt and Blaine, Mike Chang, Tina, Rachel, Finn, Puck, even her fellow Cheerios who weren't normally part of glee but were recruited as background dancers – she had even allowed her camera to be taken from her at some point and had a few pictures taken of herself. There were many posed photos, including one pre-performance group shot of everyone – but the vast majority, were someone to check the data card in her camera, were non-posed candids of Sugar.

The rest of the day had gone on without a hitch, and they had filmed all but the last scene of the special. Brittany had just finished her rendition of _Christmas Wrapping_ with Mike Chang and Santana singing with her and the Cheerios making the perfect background dancers. It went off swimmingly in one take, and now, flushed from happiness, exertion and anticipation she sat down on the sofa next to her girlfriend and snuggled tightly into her side as they waited for Rory and Sugar to make their appearance – and to perform their now slightly altered assigned roles for the show.

Soon, the stage was filled with the clanging of the bell Rory held in one of his hands, and Rachel cried out dramatically,

'Could it be? It sounds like its...'

'Itchy the holiday elf!' they all cried happily, as Rory, or 'Itchy' walked into the "family room" of the "chalet", with Sugar happily holding onto his arm not occupied by bell ringing.

'And Sugar, the Mexican Christmas reindeer!' Sugar announced, to a mixture of smirking and shocked faces, as she wasn't supposed to have any lines. Brittany and Santana just smirked.

'That's my girl,' Santana whispered into Brittany's ear, and Brittany nodded in agreement.

'That's _our_ girl,' she whispered back, and both girls smiled happily.

'We asked our friend Itchy to stop by and read us a light-hearted, up-beat, and heart-warming Christmas tale,' Kurt said, right on cue. '"Frosty the Snowman"'

'Actually, I was going to read that, but, I searched my heart, and decided I'm going to read something from a different book, and I think its something that's going to remind people what the true spirit of Christmas really is all about,' Rory said, his smile both genuine and a smirk at the same time. Which, until that very moment, neither Brittany nor Santana even knew was physically possible.

Rachel and some of the others of course improvised to the best of their abilities, not letting themselves be thrown by the apparent move off script that they weren't prepared for, but it was, of course, to no avail, and Rory took out his small, black leather bound personal copy of the bible, and began to read,

'And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by , lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were so the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will toward men.'

As he read, all the glee clubbers sat quietly and peacefully, listening to the words. What may have started as a subtle act of rebellion against Artie's insensitivity, may have, Brittany thought, unintentionally brought some of the people there to some much-needed introspection and perhaps to a better understanding of what the true meaning of Christmas was all about. For their parts, Brittany and Santana sat quietly, holding hands, with Santana resting her head on Brittany's shoulder, listening to the words.

When Rory had finished reading, and before anyone – Artie or otherwise – could do anything, he nodded to Sugar, who began to sing,

'_The first Noel / the Angel did say / was to certain poor shepherds / in fields as they lay / in fields where they lay a-keeping their sheep / on a cold winter's night that was so deep / Noel Noel Noel Noel / Born is the King of Israel..._'

Santana didn't think she had ever been that happy or heard such beautiful singing.

* * *

The Past: Christmas Eve

Santana woke up Christmas Eve morning happy and refreshed. After the jumble of emotions and excitement that happened over the previous week, which culminated with the filming of the Christmas Special and Artie being a dick, she and Brittany and Sugar had been enjoying the past week – the first week of their Christmas Holidays – to the absolute fullest. None of them woke up before 10.00, and they spent their days relaxing and enjoying each others' company. Yes, they had spent some time working on their homework and for her and Brittany, college applications so that they would have the next two and a half weeks before they went back to school completely free – because she had a special surprise for her favourite girls for this Christmas and she didn't want it to be spoilt by having to worry about school or other responsibilities – but other than that, they simply enjoyed the time to relax. Brittany and Sugar had spent some time bonding with each other, she knew; they had gone to the mall together to finish their Christmas shopping together and they had spent some time together in the basement supposedly doing 'early stage research' for the time machine to help her get back to their proper timeline, though she had a suspicion that the 'science time' as she had begun calling it in her head was more used as time for her girlfriend and daughter to bond and be silly together than anything else. And she was glad they took the time to do so; whilst she thought that they took to the whole parenting thing with an ease she would not have suspected, sometimes she was afraid that they were either babying her too much, or not enough, and the fact that Brittany took the time to play silly games and that sort of thing with Sugar helped calm her nerves and her mind that they weren't, in fact, screwing her daughter up beyond repair.

Of course, she made sure that she also spent plenty of one-on-one bonding time with her daughter. They went to quite a few movies at the cinema, since they were both hugely into movies, they browsed bookshops, and all sorts of other mother-daughter activities. She even started teaching Sugar how to cook, and she knew that it was safe to say that her daughter was most definitely _not_ a natural in the kitchen. But that didn't deter either of them, and after a week, she was already showing marked improvements, at least on simple things like pasta and guacamole (not together, of course, because that combination would be terrible). She even managed to have, at least the first part, of the conversation she was dreading having with her daughter: the one about her dating. She thought that she had handled it very well, all things considered. There was no arguing, no yelling, on either side. She didn't forbid, or even discourage anything; she did, however, tell Sugar about the facts of life, especially as it related to dating – and particularly dating teenaged boys – and warned her about the extra hazards any potential future relationship she might have with anyone here would have, given the time travel element. Sugar had taken it surprisingly well, she thought, despite being very quiet for most of the remainder of that day. She hoped that Sugar didn't take it too hard, though, because all she wanted was for her to be happy.

Of course they also found plenty of time to each do their own things, as well: Sugar spent a lot of time doing various art projects, mostly drawing, in her room, and she and Brittany had discovered just how talented their daughter was – and upon seeing how talented an artist she was and how much she loved creating art, Santana had rushed out to the store to buy her a proper art kit for Christmas; Brittany spent quite a bit of time hanging out with Mike Chang and gorging herself on sushi, or else working in her basement laboratory; Santana caught up on her reading, watched tv, hung out with Puck and some of the other glee kids, slept late, took time to go for a daily run which was an activity she rarely was able to make time for during the school year, and basically anything that she wanted. This holiday was meant to be relaxing, and that was exactly what she did. And of course they all spent lots of quality time as a family, but that would go without saying. They went to the cinema and the indoor miniature golf course, they went ice skating in the town centre, they drove to Columbus to see the Christmas light display and visit the Christmas market, and a myriad of other activities; as far as Santana was concerned, it wasn't so much _what_ they did, so long as they did it together as a family.

Yes, Santana was definitely enjoying her Christmas Holidays so far, and she woke up in a very happy, well-rested and relaxed mood early Christmas Eve morning so that she could prepare the house and the food for their guests, Rory and Sam, for dinner tonight as well as the other holiday festivities that would be taking place over the course of the next few days.

When she woke up she glanced at the clock on her bedside table. It read _08.00_. She was definitely up earlier than she had planned, but it was okay because she did have a lot of work to do in preparations for the day. Sugar had asked to help her with the cooking today, and Santana had eagerly accepted the offer, both because she needed the extra "manpower" but also because she was excited that Sugar had shown an interest – especially in learning traditional family recipes that had been passed down, Lopez woman to Lopez woman for generations – and that she was able to teach her this, and these things would be passed down to the next generation, and they could bond over it.

As she rolled over in order to force herself to sit up on the edge of the bed, she noticed that Brittany was still sound asleep and snoring softly. If her girlfriend was still asleep, she _knew_ her daughter would be too. _Not to worry,_ she thought to herself, allowing both her girlfriend and daughter to have a bit of a lie in as she roused herself from the bed and moved to the ensuite bathroom in order to take a shower. She would have herself a shower, and maybe a nice cup of coffee and then try to wake the sleeping log that was her daughter. No sooner had she adjusted the taps to the proper temperature and shrugged off the over-sized t-shirt she slept in, however, than she saw something black, and hairy crawling across the vanity mirror.

_No, no, _she thought to herself, _I must just be more tired than I thought. I must be hallucinating. Its the end of December in Ohio, there's no way there's a spider crawling around my bathroom_

So she resolutely ignored what she thought was a hallucination and turned on the taps at the basin below her vanity mirror in order to splash some cold water on her face. Unfortunately for her, however, it was still there, even after she splashed water on her face and had turned the taps off again. And this time, it moved. There it was small – by comparison to other things, but massive for a spider – black, furry and crawling across her vanity mirror with its eight creepy legs, weird eyes and pincers.

There was very little Santana Maria Lopez was afraid of, but one of those things was spiders. They were creepy, crawly monsters from the dawn of time and they got in your hair and laid their eggs in your ears and even if most were completely harmless there were a few varieties that were poisonous enough to kill fully-grown humans and she just couldn't deal with that in the best of times. She certainly couldn't at 08.00 on Christmas Eve morning, in her bathroom when she was trying to take a shower. She knew she couldn't shower until the thing was gone. She knew, mentally, it was probably just a tiny little house spider but that was irrelevant to the irrational side of her that held control over her with a near-debilitating fear of spiders, as her mind warped and moulded what was in front of her into a giant monster from the dawn of time, like the giant tarantulas from Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

Almost instantly, she let out a high-pitched, howling shriek, like a banshee.

'BRITTANY!' she cried, backing frightened and naked, into the farthest possible corner from the spider.

A half-moment later, Brittany barrelled into the room, still half-asleep, covering her still-naked body with one of the topsheets from their bed and brandishing an umbrella menacingly.

'What's wrong? What's the matter? Santana?' She asked, worried, looking around desperately.

Santana could only point towards the mirror and say,

'Spider. Spider. Ew, Brittany, spider. Spider. In December. On our vanity in our bathroom,' she said, pointing frantically towards the wee devil. ' Spider, ew. Spider. Spider. Spider. Spider. Spider. Spider. Spider. Brittany, you know I can't deal with spiders, please, just...,' Santana half-shrieked, half-moaned at her girlfriend, as she tried to squeeze herself even more into the corner so she could be just that much more physically far away from the spider, despite the fact that she could not get any farther away without getting up and actually leaving the room. Brittany, for her part, soon realised there was no immediate threat to her girlfriend's physical safety, and therefore put down the umbrella she was brandishing as a weapon and wrapped the top sheet so it fitted more tightly around her body in a quasi-toga, leaving her arms free, once again, to move since they were no longer clutching the sheet to her otherwise naked body and smiled, somewhat indulgently, at her girlfriend and her almost crippling, paranoid fear of harmless spiders.

'Santana, relax,' Brittany said in as calming and reassuring a voice as she could muster. 'It'll be okay, calm down,' she said, making placating motions with her hands and soothing sounds with her voice. 'I'll take care of it, don't worry, Babe, just let me get a glass and a piece of paper and I'll put it outside'

'Are you crazy, Brittany?! Put it outside?! Just kill it!' Santana shrieked.

'I'm not going to kill it, Santana, its perfectly harmless...'

'Its not perfectly harmless! Its creepy and lays its eggs in your ears and gets in your hair and it might be poisonous! We can't have a poisonous bug in the house with our daughter!'

'Santana,' Brittany said indulgently, trying not to laugh at her girlfriend, 'Its not poisonous. Its just a common house spider. Which is an arachnid, by the way, not a bug...'

'I don't care, Brittany! Just kill it!'

'Santana...'

'Brittany,' Santana said, almost pleading now. 'Please...' she said, squirming. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught movement across the vanity on the part of the spider. 'Oh my god! Its moving! Ew, ew, ohmygodohmygodohmygod Brittany, its moving! Please, do something! Quickly!' Santana shrieked, squirming so close to the far corner of the room it looked like she was trying to crawl into the wall itself to get away from the tiny arachnid.

Brittany finally took pity on her girlfriend. Doing quick mental calculations, she realised if she put the spider outside it would just die slowly by freezing to death – and her girlfriend would be angry at her for not just "protecting her" by killing it – and realised it would be far kinder just to put it out of its misery quickly. So she quickly grabbed a wad of toilet roll in her hands and in one fluid motion that was too quick for the spider to react to, squished it, and picked the corpse of the thing up from where it lay dead and motionless, and flushed it down the toilet.

Once the spider was flushed down the toilet, Santana exhaled deeply in relief and the colour that had drained from her, had begun to return to her face and extremities.

'Better?' Brittany asked, leaning down and helping her naked girlfriend up from the floor to a standing position, and kissing her tenderly, before sweeping her eyes over her body appreciatively.

'Yes,' Santana said, breathing a sigh of relief. 'Thank you. I know its silly, but I just can't help it...' she said trailing off.

'You don't have to explain yourself to me, Babe. I love you, warts and all,' Brittany said. 'Or should I say, irrational fear of harmless woodland creatures, and all,' she said, teasing her girlfriend slightly before kissing her again. 'I will always be here to kill spiders for you,' she added. 'Though I would prefer to let them live out the rest of their lives in peace outside,' she said, chuckling.

'I love you,' Santana said.

'And I love you,' Brittany replied. 'Alright, Babe, if you're alright here, I think I'm going to go back to sleep for a little bit,' she said, yawning. 'I'll let you wake our daughter, if you haven't done that already with your screaming,' she said, chuckling, 'unless you want me to join you in the shower?' she asked, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

'As much as I would love that,' Santana said, 'you look exhausted, and you deserve to have a lie in. Go back to sleep. I'll just have a shower and make some coffee, and then maybe I'll attempt to wake the sleeping log that is our daughter so she can help me cook like she said she wanted to do,' she said, laughing, pecking her girlfriend on the lips, chuckling. Brittany just nodded and returned to the bedroom and went back to sleep.

* * *

After she had showered and dressed she went downstairs to her kitchen where she made herself a nice, strong cup of coffee – she needed that extra bit of "get up and go" considering how much preparations still had to be done and how early it was – and when it was brewed she sat and took her time drinking it, relaxing in the quiet calm of the early morning before the storm of the flurry of activity of which her home would be the epicentre for the next few days. Whilst she most certainly was _not _a morning person, on the rare occasions when she was the first person in the house up and awake like this, she took full advantage of the peace and calm to sit, and have a drink a leisurely cup of coffee whilst eating her breakfast and sometimes – as she did today – even reading a magazine or the newspaper.

When she was finished with her coffee and cereal, she left quickly cut up some fruit for Sugar and left the box of cereal on the table so her daughter could have something resembling a proper breakfast, before putting the milk away so it wouldn't spoil, poured a cup of strong, black coffee for Brittany, and went upstairs, on a mission to wake her daughter. On her way to Sugar's room, she stopped in Brittany's and her room and placed the coffee she had fetched for her girlfriend on the bedside table on her side of the bed quietly, letting her sleep, and then proceeded to her daughter's room.

When she entered Sugar's room, she found her daughter splayed out across her bed, arms and legs stretched out like a starfish, her back to the ceiling, the hand of one arm lightly grazing the floor. Sugar was snoring lightly, just like her mother, and her sheets were half-on, half-off her body.

'Buenas Dias, mi Princesa,' she said softly, but still loud enough to be heard – or at least so she thought – as she approached her daughter's sleeping form. She continued, 'time to wake up'.

She received no response from her daughter who kept snoring softly.

Santana made her way fully over to her daughter's bed and managed to pick out a spot with enough room for her to sit down on the edge of the bed, where she proceeded to rub her daughter's back lightly and planted a kiss on the girl's exposed cheek.

'Wake up, Mijita. It's Christmas Eve day,' she said softly, still rubbing the girl's back encouraging her to rise from her slumber.

'Mrrghskjghsdfdl' was the response that came from her daughter who clearly was still sound asleep.

Santana tried one more time, but louder and more forceful, and got a very similar response from her sleeping daughter. Santana knew she was going to have to bring out the big guns.

'Sugar Elizabeth Pierce-Lopez, if you don't wake up right this instant, I'll have to wake you up the hard way,' she spoke into her daughter's ear. She received only nonsense mumbling from her daughter yet again.

'Right, then, you've left me no choice,' Santana said, partially to herself and partially to the sleeping form on the bed. She grabbed Sugar's phone from the nightstand and, using all her self-control to not read the three text messages that were unread, opened up her 'alarm' app, and after adjusting the volume to its highest setting, set it off. The alarm blared like an air raid siren for almost a minute before Santana shut it off, seeing that her daughter barely shifted positions in her sleep, still very much not awake.

'Right,' Santana muttered, shutting off the alarm, wary that she wouldn't permanently damage Sugar's hearing. She got up from her seat at the edge of the bed, and walked to the foot of the bed and grabbed one of Sugar's exposed feet, and began to desperately tickle the sole.

'Mmmummmngh' Sugar mumbled in her sleep, her foot twitching. Seeing as that was the closest she'd yet gotten to proper speech, Santana took that as a good sign and continued tickling the sole of Sugar's foot, with more speed and force this time. She realised too late, of course, that this was a bad idea, and before she knew what was happening, Sugar's let kicked out involuntarily and wound up catching Santana in the stomach, causing her to keel over slightly, having the wind knocked out of her. She recovered quickly, however, and realised that she would need to use another tactic. She had no idea how Brittany was able to wake Sugar up with such ease every morning, but she was so thankful in that moment that she did, because she knew if she had to do it every morning, none of them would ever be on time for anything. She moved once more to the side of the bed and potched her daughter on the butt – not hard and not anything bordering painful or abusive, just enough to draw the sleeping girl out of her haze enough to get her to start waking up.

'Mrrmrgh,' was the response she received.

'Let's go, Sugar,' Santana said firmly. 'No more games. Get up.'

'Mrrrmgh...Mmi,' Sugar said, which Santana took as progress since the last part of her daughter's response sounded, almost, like she was mumbling the word 'Mami'.

'Andale, Sugar,' she said, rubbing her daughter's back once more.

Sugar then began muttering and mumbling again, however this time it sounded, almost, like comprehensible English words. Santana thought it sounded like 'five more minutes'.

'No. No more minutes, Sugar,' Santana said.

'Mrmmmgh'

'Right, that's it,' Santana said, moving towards the foot of her daughter's bed, and grabbing the mattress at the far corner where it met the bed, and lifted it above her head, whilst at the same time, turning it towards her daughter. The result was that poor Sugar was rolled off of her bed and wound up sprawled on the floor with a small thud. After that, she slowly began to move about, groaning and rubbing her head.

'Ow, Mami, what was that for?' she whinged, as she slowly sat up.

'I've been trying to wake you up for the past fifteen minutes, Princesa,' Santana said, chuckling and helping her daughter to stand up. 'I gave you plenty of chances to wake up the normal way, but you didn't,' she added. 'You said you wanted to help me cook, which means we need to be up and get to work very soon,' she said.

'But you didn't need to flip me off the bed!'

'To be fair, I tried a bunch of other ways for almost 20 minutes before I did that,' Santana replied.

'Mommy never flips me off the bed,' Sugar whinged.

'Well, your Mommy has a special gift,' Santana replied. 'I don't know how she does it, but we should just be thankful she does,' she added. 'In the meantime, get up and get in the shower. There's fruit and cereal with your name on it in the kitchen. We really do need to start cooking soon, though, Sugar, so don't dawdle,' she said, kissing her daughter on her forehead and heading herself back downstairs to begin prepping what she could.

* * *

Three hours to go. They had three hours to go until Christmas Eve dinner. Santana wanted everything to go well, and not only because they were having friends join them, but also because, as far as Santana was concerned, this was the first Christmas she and Brittany would be spending together, as a couple, the first family Christmas they were having as a family, and the first time she was hosting Christmas, herself, in her home (even though, yes, technically it was her parent's house, for all intents and purposes, it was hers). She and Sugar had been working in the kitchen since a little before ten that morning, and it was just past four in the afternoon, and Sam and Rory were coming over at seven. Brittany had offered to help, but she was useless in the kitchen when it came to big, fancy things with complicated recipes – she could make sandwiches, cook pasta, put a pizza in the oven, that sort of thing, but when it came to cooking Christmas dinner, she was more in the way than a help, so Santana had shooed her out of the kitchen insisting that with Sugar's help, she not only had all the help she needed, but it was also perfect Mami-Sugar bonding time, and without another word, her girlfriend nodded her understanding and kept out of the other two girls' hair, going down, Santana thought, to her laboratory that was set up in the basement to do whatever it was she did there.

Three hours until dinner and they had come along way: of course, one of the fact that all along the way she had to teach and supervise her daughter made the process a bit slower than it would have otherwise been, but she happily made that trade-off. And despite everything they were making good progress. The turkey was in the oven baking, they had finished one of the two types stuffing, the potatoes were prepped and ready to be popped in the oven in approximately a half-hour's time so they would come out the same time as the turkey, Christmas pozole and a mole sauce were both simmering on the back burners of the stove, and she and Sugar were currently in the process of making Christmas tamales, which would need to be steamed about an hour before they served dinner. They had little sausages wrapped in bacon – Brittany called them pigs in blankets – which they would cook on the stove with the chestnuts they had picked up from the shop early this morning, and that coupled with some store bought cakes would, she was sure, be the best Christmas dinner any of them had had yet.

As soon as they had finished preparing the tamales and had started the chestnuts and sausages wrapped in bacon to cook on the stove, Santana's phone rang. It was Sam.

'Hey, Trouty,' she said answering the phone, keeping an eye on Sugar who was at the stove. 'Merry Christmas'

'Merry Christmas, Santana,' Sam replied.

'So, what's up? You've got the address right? Just put it on google maps, its really easy to find,' she said, thinking he was calling for directions to her house.

'No, I can figure that out, no problem,' Sam said. 'Listen, Rory and I were wondering...should we bring anything? I know that you said not to worry or anything, but I feel bad not bringing anything for a Christmas dinner,' he said.

'Don't worry about it Trouty,' she said. 'You don't need to bring anything'

'But I want to'

'Ok, fine, if it'll shut you up, you can bring something,' she said, mock-frustrated. She turned her back on Sugar momentarily to see what she could have him bring that wouldn't be too difficult or expensive. 'Could you bring like, a bottle or two of wine? No more than that, because I don't want tonight to be about drinking, you know what I mean?'

'Of course,' Sam said. 'Anything in particular you guys like?' He asked. Santana was about to answer when she heard a high-pitched shriek followed by the smoke detector in her kitchen going off. She turned her head to see Sugar, panicking, as the pan with a not-small fire inside of it.

'Shit,' She muttered to herself. 'Sam, surprise me. I gotta go. I'm teaching Sugar to cook and I turned my back on her for like, a minute and she's already set the pan on fire. I gotta go make sure she doesn't burn my kitchen to the ground,' she said, immediately ending the call.

After ending the call, she tossed her phone onto the table, ran to Sugar's side and dragged her by the wrist away from the pan and back towards the kitchen table they were using as a workstation, which was a safe distance away from the stove, before returning to the stove, grabbing the pan and tossing it into the metal basin of the sink. Once it was safely in the sink, she grabbed the fire extinguisher she kept in the kitchen as an emergency precaution for just such an event, and turned the extinguisher on the pan, putting out the flames before it was able to set the house on fire.

After a few moments during which both girls took deep, calming breaths, Santana walked back to where Sugar was standing, and engulfed her into a powerful bear hug. The bear hug was interrupted by Brittany running like a bat out of hell into the kitchen.

'Is everybody okay? I heard the smoke alarm go off! What happened?' she asked looking from her girlfriend to her daughter and back again.

'We're fine, Britt,' Santana said calmly. 'Sugar almost set the house on fire, but I took care of it. We're fine'

'WHAT?! How did that happen?!'

'I...I don't know...' Sugar replied, still slightly shaken up.

Brittany looked to Santana, hoping for an explanation, unfortunately her girlfriend was not able to give her one.

'I don't know, Britt. She was doing fine one minute, cooking the sausages and chestnuts like I showed her, and I turned my back for like, a second, and then the next thing I know the pan is on fire,' she said, it was so absurd it was almost funny. If it had happened to anyone other than her daughter, she would have been laughing already.

'Well...I...,' Brittany said, at a loss for words. As much as she wanted to reprimand her girlfriend or her daughter – someone, anyone – for being irresponsible and giving her such a fright, she knew that Santana would never do anything purposely irresponsible with their daughter and what had happened was probably a freak accident and could have happened to anyone, so she quickly deflated, and continued, 'I guess as long as everyone's okay, that's the only important thing,' she said, smiling, giving first her daughter, and then her girlfriend, a hug.

'We're all fine, Britt,' Santana said. 'Nobody got hurt, Sugar was a little shaken up, but she'll be fine in a few minutes,' she said, chuckling. 'The only thing is now we won't be able to have any chestnuts or pigs-in-blankets,' she said.

'I'm completely fine with that trade-off, San,' Brittany said, chuckling, and Santana and Sugar both quickly joined in.

'Well, now that we've settled that and I've been properly frightened,' Brittany said jocularly, 'I think I'm going to go upstairs and shower and start getting ready. You two should think about doing the same,' Brittany said, and immediately left the kitchen and headed towards the stairs which led to hers and Santana's bedroom.

* * *

The dinner was a resounding success. They were all stuffed to their gills and they still had tonnes of leftovers. Rory said it was probably the second best Christmas dinner he had ever had, behind his Mammy's. They all enjoyed each other's company, good conversation and good Christmas cheer. Brittany and Santana had even allowed Sugar to have two glasses of wine with dinner, on the understanding that this was not going to be a regular thing, and they did not condone her drinking otherwise, and it was only because it was Christmas dinner and under their supervision.

Then, a little before half-past eleven, Santana, Sugar, and Brittany found themselves in the Priests' study, which was a small, but cozy little room off the main hall of the church, filled with soft leather sofas and chairs, lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves crammed full to bursting with books, and a small desk in the far corner upon which sat an old, out-of-date computer which housed all the documents of the Church which had been thus-far computerised, and a small radio.

Rory, for his part, was outside in the still-quiet main church hall, having a long-awaited skype telephone call with mother in Ireland, for whom it was already Christmas morning, and Sam was wandering around the Church, taking in all the intricate differences between the austere Protestant Church he was raised in and the decorations and pomp of the Catholic Church of Santa Maria de Gracia.

When they had first entered the study and sat down, Oscar had entered, excited and peppy, like Mr Shue on crack – it was of course, just excitement, both for Christmas and for meeting his cousin-from-the-future – and introduced himself, hugging Brittany and Santana warmly.

'And you must be Sugar,' he said, finally getting a good look at her.

'Si, Padre,' Sugar said, uncharacteristically shy and quiet. Oscar looked at Santana, confused. Based on the description she had given him the week before, he expected someone entirely different.

'English, Sugar,' Santana urged quietly. Sugar just nodded quietly and clung tighter to her mothers, and acting very much un-Sugar-like.

'She's not normally this quiet, Oscar,' Santana said, fighing the urge to laugh at the absurdity. 'I think she's just nervous'

Oscar smiled knowingly and knelt down so that his six-foot-plus frame would be eye level with the short girl.

'Hi, Sugar,' he said, extending his hand. 'I'm very pleased to meet you. I'm your cousin, Oscar,' he said, waiting patiently for her to take his proffered hand and shake it. 'There we go, that's more like it,' he said after she did so.

'I imagine you're probably really excited and really nervous right now, am I right?' he asked kindly and Sugar nodded timidly – though, he noted, she did not seem nearly as small and scared as she did even a few minutes prior. 'Well, that's completely natural,' Oscar said. 'I mean, you've heard all these stories about her your whole life and now you're getting this chance to meet her that you never thought you would and it must be more overwhelming than you originally thought it would be, am I right?'

Sugar nodded, albeit a bit more confidently now.

'Well, don't worry, Sugar,' Oscar said. 'Your moms are going to be here, right beside you, the whole time, and so will I,' he said. 'So there is nothing to worry about,' he said, reassuringly. 'Do you trust me?'

'I...I think so,' Sugar said.

'You think so? You think so? Oh, that hurts! You wound me, cousin-mine!' he cried, placing his hands over his heart as if he was wounded.

Sugar laughed heartily at his antics and made a snarky comment.

'Sugar,' Brittany reprimanded sharply, but Oscar simply responded, saying,

'That's much better. There's the vivacious little firecracker I knew Santana and Brittany's daughter would be,' he said, laughing, which was contagious and soon all four of them were laughing heartily. When the laughter died down, Oscar asked Sugar seriously.

'Well? How do you feel now? Better?'

'Yeah, a bit. But..'

'Still nervous?' Oscar asked, not unkindly, as Brittany and Santana squeezed Sugar's shoulders supportively.

'Yeah'

'Don't worry about it,' Oscar said. 'Whatever will happen, is in God's hands now, and whatever will be will be,' he said. 'In the meantime, let's talk about something else,' he said, deliberately changing the subject. 'What's your favourite subject in school?'

The conversation had gone on for quite some time as they were waiting for Alma Lopez – Santana's Abuela and Sugar's Bisabuela – to show up at the time Oscar requested her to come, and, once Sugar relaxed the conversation became much more free, open and lively and involved not only Sugar and Oscar, but Brittany and Santana as well. Soon, however, it was half-past eleven, and Oscar stood up.

'Well, ladies, it looks like the moment of truth will soon be upon us. I'm going to go see if I can find her, and I'll bring her here,' he said, standing up from the leather chair he was sitting in. 'Relax, don't worry,' he said, to all the girls in the room who at that moment suddenly looked extremely nervous. They sat together, on the large sofa in the small study, nervously waiting for Oscar to return with Alma. What seemed like both an eternity and a barely a milisecond later at the same time, they heard two distinct voices on the other side of the door to the study, one young and male, the other tired, old and female.

'...I need to get a good seat, Oscar, Mass will start soon and I want to be able to hear what's going on, you know I'm not as young as I used to be...' she was saying, they could hear through the door.

'Don't worry about that, Alma, don't worry about that at all. I am the Priest, after all. They can't start without me,' he said, laughter in his voice. 'Just come in for a moment, there's something I need to give you,' he said.

'Can't it wait until after Mass? I mean, honestly, Oscar, if your mother were to hear about this...'

'No, it can't wait. Come on, don't worry, it will be quick,' he said. And a few seconds later, the door was opening and in walked Oscar, followed, grudgingly, by Alma Lopez.

As soon as she saw Santana and Brittany, she stopped, dead in her tracks, before she was even fully in the study.

'You'

'Me,' Santana said, her voice an unemotional monotone.

'What is this? You think just because you've got your cousin, who happens to be a Priest to help you, that I'll somehow take you back? Forgive you for what you've done? For the shame you've brought on our family with your...abominations...?' she asked, her voice dripping with a malice that Santana had never heard before, or thought was ever possible for someone to address a member of their own family with.

'Stop. Just stop right now, Alma,' Oscar said, as Brittany squeezed Santana's hand supportively as they stood, hiding Sugar from view as per the plan.

'No, Oscar, its okay,' she said. 'Its nothing I haven't heard before. After all, _e__stoy una verguenza_,' she said, her own voice laced with a malice she didn't realise she had. 'Abuelita,' she said, calming her voice as best as she could. 'I will always love you, even if you hate me forever,' Santana said, sadly. 'But I've realised now, after you completely ignored me and pretended I was dead the other week, that there's nothing I can do to change your mind. Your mind is made up and your heart has been hardened,' she said, referencing one of her Abuela's favourite bible passages.

'So I am done trying to get you to understand, even though I would love if you did. The love that Brittany and I share, what we have...there are no words to describe how real this is. How amazing I feel when we're together and...and I...I just wish I could share this part of who I am with you, because you're my Abuela and I love you,' she said, sadly, before continuing. 'Abuelita, Brittany...ella es mi alma gemela. No existe una persona más, ni ahora ni nunca. Ella es ella para mi,' Santana said, happy she was able to finally express how she felt about her girlfriend to her grandmother, but sad that the woman would not care nor be happy for them. 'But I know you don't care about that, you've made that abundantly clear. So I'm just hear to tell you something that, I hope, will put things into perspective for you,' she said.

'Brittany and I love each other, and some day, we are going to live somewhere where gay marriage is legal, and we are going to get married. And then, about six years from now, we're going to have a daughter, whom you will never see, because we won't let any bigots anywhere near her, and then, when she's fifteen years old, she's going to accidentally turn on Brittany's time machine and travel back in time, and find herself stranded in the dark ages of Lima, Ohio, 2012, and...'

'Is that right?' Alma Lopez said snidely.

'Yes'

'Really, Santana? A time machine? You're spending far too much time with that ditzy blonde friend of yours...'

'She's not a ditz, she's a genius and if you ever bothered to look past the superficial, you'd know that by now!' Santana nearly shouted. 'We've been inseperable since first grade, and you've interacted with her countless times, but you never bothered to get past the fact that she was a little bit different! She is a _genius_, Abuelita, and she's SO much more than just my _friend_! She is the woman I'm going to spend the rest of my life with, Christ, why can't you understand this?!'

'Don't you dare take the Lord's name in vein Santana, you are not too old for me beat,' Alma said.

'You aren't a very nice person, Mrs Lopez,' Brittany said, matter-of-factly. 'And I do have a time machine, you know. I mean, its still in the developmental stages, and I still need to figure out the propulsion problem, but I'll have plenty of time and access to better labs for that when I'm at MIT next year,' she said, not-so-subtly name dropping to show how not-stupid she was, almost more for Santana's sake than her own. 'But its real, and it will work. I know that for a fact,' she said proudly.

'And how did you come to know all this?' she asked, her voice still laced with malice. How could people be so cruel, Santana wondered to herself. Especially to their own families. She would never know. 'Hmm? Tell me, Santana. Brittany. How did you figure all this out?'

'Because I told her,' Sugar said, stepping into view from behind her parents for the first time. 'Hi...Bisabuela,' she said timidly. 'My name is Sugar Elizabeth Pierce-Lopez. I was born 23 August, 2018, and my mothers are Brittany and Santana Pierce-Lopez.'

Alma Lopez couldn't believe her eyes. Or her ears. What she was seeing and hearing...no, it was impossible. Absolutely impossible. Against all the laws of science, and nature, and most importantly, the laws of God. No, absolutely not. This girl...she couldn't. No. But, she physically she looked so much like Santana did at that age, perhaps a bit shorter and her frame was a bit more lithe, but she could see it. And that confidence. That blunt, almost brutal honesty and that confidence...if the girl wasn't a Lopez, she'd eat her hat. But...no. This was impossible. Time travel is impossible. Just like two women having a baby is impossible. Just like it was immoral and a greivous, deadly sin – and abomination – what Santanita was, how she decided to live. No, Alma thought – she knew – this was not possible. Her grand-daughter was dead, and therefore, she could have no great-grandchildren. And so what should have been a happy occasion, a great grandchild and a wonderful Christmas, was the opposite, and heart heart was hardened even further when she spoke.

'Madre de Dios,' she said, crossing herself. 'Why would you do this, Santana? Do you think I would forgive you? Take you back, call you my grand-daughter again? You made your choice, Santana, and I made mine,' she said, switching to Spanish. 'What you do...what you are...this choice you have made, is an abomination. It is an abomination and affront to God, and this Church, and its teachings, and all that is Holy. It is wicked and sinful and you are going to burn in hellfire for all eternity, and you are no grand-daughter of mine. My grand-daughter is dead,' she said forcefully, as Oscar looked on in horror, and Santana's face lost all of its colour, and Sugar's confidence seemed to deflate instantly and she seemed to shrink back into her mother, small and timid like a toddler hiding in her mother's skirts.

'And if that wasn't bad enough, to bring a child into the picture. This child...if she is, indeed, even yours, is the spawn of your heinous union, a walking abomination. She is a child of sin, and she has no choice in the matter, is what's worse, you and your whore brought her into this world as part of your sinful, blasphemous lifestyle, and you bring her here, to what? To meet me? Why? Do you think I would be proud? If you thought that, you must not know me at all, girl. The blonde's stupidity must have rubbed off on you...,'

'That's quite enough, Alma,' Oscar reprimanded in his best "Priest Voice".

'Oh, you're hardly innocent yourself, Oscar,' she said, rounding on him. 'You should be ashamed of yourself, aiding and abetting these blasphemers, letting them into this house of God! I will be telling your Bishop, and your mother!'

'Jesus' message was love, Alma,' Oscar said, trying – though he didn't know why he even tried – to reason with her.

'And the Lord is vengeful,' she replied, before rounding on Santana and Sugar again.

'You are a blasphemous, sinful whore, and your choices are abominations in the eyes of God,' she continued. 'And I am ashamed that it was one of my children who created you, so you in turn could turn your back on everything good, right, and holy in this world, and bring this abomination of a child into the world. This child of sin. This Devil's Child...you know that when there are two mothers, the Devil is the father,' she ranted. By this time, Sugar was clinging to Santana as if for dear life, had buried her head into her body and was bawling uncontrollably, despite Santana's best efforts to calm her daughter and remind her that nothing that Alma had said was in the least bit true, she was not sinful, or dirty, or an abomination or anything other than her perfect little angel, her gift from God. Of course, because all this had been said in rapid-fire Spanish, Brittany looked on in shock and confusion; she knew whatever had happened had not been good, and she had picked up a few of the words here or there, but it was simply too fast, and her Spanish was simply not good enough for her to understand anything beyond that.

'That is quite enough, Alma!' Oscar said. 'Jesus' message was one of love: being so cruel, to your own flesh and blood is the exact opposite of Christ's teachings. You have left me no choice, Alma. Either apologise, this very moment, to all three of these women, or else I will no longer hear your confessions or offer you the Grace of Holy Communion'

'On whose authority?'

'Our Lord Jesus',' Oscar said, 'as bestowed to me as a Priest of the Holy and Apostolic Catholic Church through the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop and Catholic Archdiocese of Columbus, Ohio,' he said, firmly. Alma did not apologise. Instead, she simply turned on her heel and left the study, and began making her way out of the Church, as it was beginning to fill up for Midnight Mass.

'What was all that, Santana?' Brittany asked.

'Don't...don't worry about it Brittany,' was all Santana could say.

'Don't give me that, Santana,' Brittany almost shouted, frustrated. 'I get that it was emotional for everyone involved, but I couldn't understand what she said, and she clearly hurt our duaghter deeply. She is _our_ daughter, Santana. Yours _and mine_ and I have a right to know,' She said, firmly.

'Okay, I'll tell you, but can't it wait? Please?' Santana practically begged. If it were any other time or any other reason, Brittany would have easily agreed and let it drop, and allowed her girlfriend to tell her in her own time. But not now, not today. Not after seeing how deeply it affected both her girlfriend and her daughter. She had to know, and she had to know now, and she told Santana as much.

Reluctantly, Santana told her. She told her the whole truth of the horrible conversation that had just occurred, translating, word for word the horrible things that the woman who had formerly been known as her Abuela, had said. And it was then that Santana saw something in Brittany that she had never, ever, in the ten-plus years they had known each other, ever seen before. She had seen Brittany angry, even livid, multiple times before. More times than she cared to count, in fact – mostly because to her constant shame, they were usually at or because of her – but she had never seen this look before. It was one of ice cold hatred. She couldn't describe it beyond that, but all she needed to know is that whoever was on the receiving end of such a facial expression would know the real meaning of true fear, that much was certain.

Then, before anyone could do or say anything more, Brittany turned on her heel and left, at a run, the Priest's study, chasing down Alma Lopez, catching up to her and cutting her off before she had gotten half-way out of the church.

'You vile, horrid, wretched, hateful bat!' She cried at her as she rounded on the older woman. 'How dare you! How fucking dare you!' she cried. 'What have you to say for yourself?!'

'I hope you make your peace with Jesus,' Alma said. Before anyone else knew what happened, Brittany's hands, for the first time she could ever remember, balled up into fists, and all she could see was a blinding, all-encompasing, white-hot rage. The next thing she knew, her fist connected directly into the older woman's face, flooring her with a loud crack that echoed throughout the church.

'You horrible, hateful, bigoted little worm! You wretched old cow!,' she cried again, standing over Alma as the older woman tried to sit up and pinched the bridge of her nose to stop the bleeding. If one thing could be said about Alma Lopez, she was tough as nails.

'I don't give a flying fuck what you say about me, you horrid little shit,' Brittany hissed at her. 'Or even what you say about Santana, though you insult her at your own risk,' she said. 'Hell, I couldn't give less of a shit what you think about her and I being together, because we don't need the approval of hateful bigots to know our love is real,' she said, her voice rising in volume and timbre yet again. 'But if you _ever_, and I do mean _EVER_ insult my daughter again – you know what, hell, if you even say one fucking word about her, if a single unkind thought about my daughter _ever_ enters that dinosaur skull of yours and makes it into speech or print, I swear on everything you consider Holy that it will be the last thing you ever do in your miserable life,' she said, her voice dangerously calm. 'Do I make myself clear?'

'Crystal'

'Good. Now get out of our Church, some of us would like to celebrate Christmas,' she said, turning her back on Alma Lopez forever, and returning to where Santana and Sugar still sat on the couch, of the Priest's Study, Santana desperately trying to impress upon Sugar how wrong Alma was about her. She was completely oblivious to the completely gobsmacked expressions on the faces of those parishoners who were in the Church to witness what had just happened, including Sam and Rory.

* * *

**A/N2: So, there it is. Part 1 of Christmas done. My original plan was to have all of Christmas, including the boxing day party, all be part of one chapter, but this one just kept growing and growing and growing and demanding I write more into it, and it was already by far the longest chapter I've written for this story, so I figured I'd stop it here, which was about the most natural stopping point I could think of. If you're disappointed, I'm sorry, but then you'll just be excited for when the next chapter comes, right? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, I certainly enjoyed writing. **


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